Hidden Underneath
by DragonFire44
Summary: As the Akatsuki work to complete their goals; Tobi moves to complete a personal one as well. To claim Deidara. To make him truly his but will he? Will Deidara return Tobi's feelings? Contains Mature Content! Ma
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuden.

Warning: Cussing, rating will go up. OC's will not have major roles; they will only pop up to move the story along. Meaning they are not main characters nor side characters. Their parts are brief and most will be permanently dealt with. Not Beta'ed

This is a Tobi/Dei yaoi so if you do not like then do not read. Tobi/Dei - Slow building.

Note **–(Possible Spoiler?)** I read somewhere that Tobi isn't Madara, I don't know if that is true but I like the idea. I've only seen up to Episode 206… So in this story Tobi is Madara and is still the real leader.

It bums me out that there is so few of Tobi/Dei so I'm finally doing my own. This is my first time writing the Akatsuki…

Other pairings: Kisame/Itachi, Kakuzu/Hidan and Pein/Konan. Though might be just hinted or just slight

Hidden Underneath

Chapter One – Meet Akatsuki

"Kisame, could you _seriously_ stop singing?" Kakuzu grated out.

It was early morning in the Akatsuki hideout and Kisame had decided to cook breakfast for everyone seeing as how the only ones that were capable were Kisame himself and Deidara. Surprisingly.

Unfortunately the only thing Kisame could cook were pancakes so having him cook often was not very desirable. But getting Deidara to cook for everyone wasn't easy; more often than not he had to be bribed. Good thing it never was anything outrageous since the blonds cooking was fantastic.

"What's wrong with my singing?" Kisame hummed out breaking Kakuzu's musings.

Not even glancing at the blue haired shark nin, eyes focused on the paper in his hands, he grumbled "You're tone deaf."

A shark like grin etched across the blue nin's face, sharp teeth lightly glinting in the dim light of the kitchen. "Like _you_ could do better." Kakuzu didn't even bother to comment to that.

Kisame turned his attention back to the stove while Kakuzu grumbled under his breath as Kisame started humming instead.

"Morning fuckers!"

With a deep sigh and his frustration increasing Kakuzu lowly growled, "Shut up Hidan."

"Screw you." The violet eyed male scoffed, giving the other the finger as he took a seat at the table beside his green eyed partner with a grin. He as usual was shirt-less with his Jashin necklace around his neck.

A plate of pancakes was placed before the Jashin worshiper and without so much as a 'thank you' grabbed a fork and dug in once syrup was added.

Kakuzu glanced at the silver haired male with distaste, "At least close your mouth while you eat." Sometimes he wasn't sure why he bothered… Hidan tended to ignore or argue about his advice or the things he said.

Before Hidan could make a crude or sarcastic remark Itachi entered the kitchen with his usual grace, despite the fact that he is slowly going blind.

With a glance of his onyx eyes (he was keeping his sharingan off more to help slow the progress of blindness) and strode to the cupboards. Retrieving a cup he then poured himself some coffee.

He then seated himself at the end of the table from where Kakuzu and Hidan were sitting. Not a moment later a plate of pancakes was place in front of him. Nodding slightly in thanks to his partner while doctoring his food he began eating.

By the time Konan, the only female member strolled into the kitchen the noise level had sky rocketed. She had a piercing on her lover lip and an origami flower in her blue hair. Hidan and Kakuzu were in argument about Hidan's rituals and bleeding all over the place… again. This was an ongoing argument. Much like the constant arguing from Sasori and Deidara about whose art was better.

Itachi was conversing quietly to Kisame who had taken a seat besides the raven momentarily while waiting for the other members to show up to make their portions of the pancakes. If he made them all at once they would get cold or eaten by those already present.

Blinking her strange orange colored eyes Konan glared at the bickering pair. "Must you two be this loud so early in the morning? If you wake Pein up, he'll be furious."

The blue haired female was completely ignored much to her ire. With her eye twitching Konan sat across from Itachi while Kisame returned with her plate of food, having gotten up while she was focused on the zombie pair.

With a mild smile she uttered a low "Thank you Kisame." Konan picked up her fork just as a shout louder than the two idiots echoed in the kitchen and possibly down the hallway.

"GOOD MORNING!"

All heads snapped to the orange masked male with black spiky hair who had his arms up as he shouted. He was completely covered in black, he even sported black gloves. The only visible skin was his toes, which was painted a light purple as was the code, despite only being a subordinate.

"Shut up Tobi!" Hidan yelled, glaring irritatingly at the only non member of the Akatsuki.

"As if you and Kakuzu weren't being noisy." Itachi quietly stated.

Hidan's head snapped to the Uchiha anger visible on his features mouth opening with a no doubt crude retort, when he was hit upside the head by Kakuzu. This led to another bout of arguing between the pair.

Tobi skipped over to the table taking a seat next to Konan where a plate of pancakes rested.

"Yum! These are great Kisame!" Tobi energetically voiced once he finished his first bite who received a toothy grin while Konan rolled her eyes. Kisame's pancakes tasted just like every other time he cooked them.

The blue haired female turned her eyes back to her plate to find more pancakes. "Kisame I can't eat all this." Kisame chuckled lightly with a somewhat sheepish grin but made no comment. Mild irritation sparked at Kisame, Konan took five golden brown pancakes from her plate and set them on an empty one.

Finally Pein shuffled in with an irritated look, instantly all noise stopped.

"Is there any reason you're all being so loud?" Pein's voice was quiet but with a hint of ill-intent.

Everyone shifted slightly knowing that answering would be stupid as well as pointless. This was a common occurrence. If Pein was truly furious there wouldn't have been any talking, he probably would have grabbed the first person within reach and slammed their head against the table. Before telling them to keep the noise down and ending it with a threat.

Kisame broke the silent spell by standing and heading over to the stove to retrieve a batch of pancakes for their leader. The five extra on the table from Konan's batch was snagged by Hidan.

Just as breakfast was wrapping up Sasori who had bright red hair entered, settling at the table and riveting his chocolate orbs onto Pein. No plate of pancakes was placed before him, seeing as how Sasori didn't require food being a puppet and all.

Once all the dishes were cleared off the table save for drinks Pein spoke "Where is Deidara?" His rippled eyes focused on Sasori who was Deidara's partner.

Before Sasori could speak Tobi jumped up and with a shrill ecstatic quality to his voice shouting, "Tobi will go get Senpai!" And in a flash was gone from the room.

Pein's eyes closed briefly as he crossed his arms. Quiet talking broke out as everyone waited for their youngest member to show up with Tobi.

~88

"Senpai!" Tobi squealed as he reached the artists shared room. Not bothering to knock Tobi zoomed inside. His lone eye surveyed the room before falling onto the lump on one of the two beds in the room.

Strands of golden hair peaked out from under the covers the bundle shifting ever so slightly as Tobi made his way over.

As a last minute decision the masked male launched himself forward and unto the body of the blond haired male with a shout.

"Senpai!"

Deidara grunted at the impact unable to hold in a strong wince, luckily for him his face was hidden so his reaction went un-noticed.

"What Tobi?" Deidara growled out.

Tobi shifted on top of the blue eyed teen so that he ended up straddling the other. Reaching with a gloved hand he pulled the blanket from the others face, revealing tangled blond hair and one baby blue eye glaring at the orange swirled mask. Tobi pouted.

"Everyone's in the kitchen Senpai… except Zetsu. Leader-sama is waiting."

Deidara only grunted in reply. Closing his eyes briefly with a sigh Deidara slowly pushed his arms up mildly glaring as his arms shook at the effort.

Grunting again the blond paused for a moment his eyes narrowing in anger at the male sitting on him.

"Tobi… get off un."

The raven tilted his head to the side as if the blonds' words confused him, but his eye narrowed and a frown stole his expression.

"Senpai - "

Irritated Deidara scowled "Get off!" Interrupting the other; in no mood to put up with Tobi. If he didn't lack the energy Deidara would have shoved the other off.

For a few seconds nothing happened then silently, very unlike Tobi who was always loud and energetic got off the blue eyed teen.

Once Tobi was off, Deidara as fast as he could so as not to attract any suspicions sat up. With a mild amount of effort he succeeded. His body ached and burned but nowhere near as much as it did the night before.

Throwing the covers off him, he shifted to the edge of the bed and froze. Blinking, his brow furred before Deidara glanced up at the far too silent Tobi.

"What?" He growled out to the masked nin.

The raven crossed his arms shifting slightly, "Nothing Senpai!" He cheerily chirped. "Just waiting for you."

A scowl stole over the blonds face his expression plainly annoyed, "No need…"

"But Senpai!" Tobi sang cutting off the blond much to his vexation. "Leader-sama is waiting. And you're being rather slow."

Deidara felt his eyebrows twitch, but before he could retort Tobi's hand shot forward and gripped his arm and pulled. "No time Senpai!" And without letting Deidara so much as brush his hair pulled the irritated blond out the door.

"Tobi!" He shouted in anger and annoyance. His legs jolting at the sudden action and for a moment Deidara thought his legs were going to give out. Luckily they didn't, that would have been embarrassing and would no doubt cause questions that he really didn't want to answer.

Deidara gave a quick tug on his arm but to his surprise couldn't pull free. He didn't recall Tobi being this particularly strong but then again he didn't have a whole lot of energy so no doubt it was due to his weakness…. No matter how painful it was to admit it not that he'd ever say it out loud.

With a sigh Deidara ran a mouthed hand through his rather tangled hair and gave a small attempt at untangling a few strands.

As he grudgingly allowed Tobi to drag him he hoped that there wouldn't be a mission for him and Sasori today.

After a few turns in the lightly lit corridors Deidara scowled.

"Oi, Dumbass!" Deidara growled. He was irritated to be moving so forcefully. He hadn't recovered yet and Tobi dragging him wasn't helping. Though if he had been left to walk on his own he would more than likely been moving rather slowly. Still…

"Yes Senpai?" Tobi sang back. The blonds' eye twitched, Deidara felt a migraine start to form. It was far too early to be dealing with Tobi.

With a scowl firmly fixed on his features he gripped "This is the wrong way un!"

The masked male giggled… _giggled _and Deidara was seriously contemplating throwing one of his clay bombs at the annoying male. Too bad his clay was back in his room.

"We're meeting in the kitchen today."

"Tch." It wasn't often that the Akatsuki met in the kitchen. Usually it was in Pein's office or the living room. But sometimes when everyone was present in the hideout and made it to breakfast they would wait for Pein (Or he joined them for breakfast) and start their daily meeting. It didn't make sense to locate to one of the usual places, which would just waste time.

The rest of the walk was made in a one-sided conversation. Tobi chattering away about mundane things while Deidara tried to ignore him to the best of his ability.

Finally Deidara gave another jerk of his arm at a painful throb to his forehead. His patience spent, not that it was really there to begin with. Tobi's grip had gone rather slack when the blond had made no more attempts the first time causing Deidara to gain back his arm.

The pair stopped momentarily, Tobi cocked his head to the side but uttered no words as he watched the blond message the side of his head with one painted hand.

Glaring Deidara growled out to the taller male, "I can walk on my own un." Not waiting for a reply the blond shoved past the older male and made the last few paces to the kitchen.

~88

All talking stopped as a disheveled blond entered the kitchen with Tobi right behind him. Deidara glared at the members gathered around the table, silently daring them to comment on his appearance.

"Wow Dei-chan, nice hair." Hidan taunted a sadistic grin on his face.

Deidara's glare deepened, snapping "Shut up Panda-chan."

Hidan scowled immediately, rising from his seat while pointing at the blond threateningly. If he had his three bladed scythe with him he would have been pointing it at the teen menacingly, "Fuck you blondie! I'll sacrifice you to Lord Jashin-"

Kakuzu slammed his fist into his partners head, "Shut up and sit down."

"Fuck you Kakuzu! I'll-"

"Silence!" Pein snapped.

Hidan 'tsked' but resumed his seat while glaring at everyone. Pein turned his attention to Deidara and without saying anything the blond quickly took a seat next to Sasori and across from Hidan. While Tobi skipped over to his seat besides Konan with Sasori on his other side.

"Hidan, Kakuzu you have a mission to the land of Cloud. Everything concerning the mission will be in your scroll so see me before you both leave."

Hidan grumbled but reframed from complaining with a sharp glare from his green eyed partner.

Pein's rippled eyes shifted to the pair beside Hidan, "Itachi, Kisame you both have the day off."

"What!" Hidan shouted only to be quickly silenced by Kakuzu. Kisame grinned toothily at the upset Jashinist ignoring the murderous glare.

Itachi nodded silently at their leader as Pein shifted attention to the artists.

Deidara prayed silently for no mission while keeping his expression annoyed. Pointedly not looking at Sasori and keeping his eyes fixated on the orange haired male.

"Your mission is to travel to Iron and retrieve a scroll. See me before you leave to get your mission scroll, everything you need to know is inside."

Deidara sighed inwardly in depression. So much for praying… maybe he should convert to Jashinism…

"That's everything for now-"

"What about Tobi!" Tobi shouted, waving an arm. "Huh? Leader-sama!"

Pein glared briefly at the annoying male before sighing. "You will join Zetsu on a scouting mission when he returns."

"Alright! Tobi gets to help!" Anything else the masked male was going to say was cut off as a fork sailed through the air and hit his mask with a 'cling' before falling to the table with a 'thump'.

"Shut up pumpkin head!" Hidan growled, standing from his seat and aiming to grab another eating utensil when Kakuzu grabbed his arm. Swiveling to the other with a shout he was pulled away from the table and out the room, leaving behind profanities.

Deidara lightly grinned at the scene feeling a tad better at the familiar routine. Not that fork throwing was a common thing but having someone through_ something_ at Tobi was which was usually done by Hidan or himself.

His mild good mood slipped when his blue eyes caught Sasori's glare and he was unable to stop the flinch that passed over his features. Inwardly grimacing Deidara lowered his head hoping no one had noticed anything.

"Brat." Sasori's voice snapped.

"Un." Deidara replied as Sasori stood but just as he went to do the same Pein's voice stopped him.

"Deidara."

Slowly Deidara raised his head and settled his gaze on the pierced male of their leader. As usual it was hard to make out what Pein was thinking. Konan shifted lightly besides Pein, her orange eyes boring into Deidara's face. Deidara ignored the female, keeping his sole attention on Pein.

Deidara was sure he was in trouble for something… what he wasn't sure but then Pein's eyes softened slightly much to Deidara's shock and surprise.

"Are you alright?" The tone was neutral but the small softness in his eyes showed that Pein was genuinely curious if not worried.

The remaining members had stilled and were now focused on the clay artist. Deidara tried to keep his expression even but felt his mouth fall slightly open as he gapped at Pein.

"Senpai." Tobi voiced softly at Deidara's prolonged silence. Blinking Deidara swallowed silently but nodded, "Un."

Pein stared at the blond for a few moments before his eyes returned to normal with a curt nod.

Deidara squared his shoulders and quickly stood. He had a strange feeling that Pein didn't believe him. He quickly dismissed his thoughts as he followed his partner to their shared room. But just as he stepped out of the kitchen a voice chimed, "Ne Dei-chan? You hungry? I can cook up some more pancakes."

Deidara quickly shook his head; he didn't trust his voice at the moment. "You sure? You didn't eat dinner last night." Kisame insisted.

"Un." Deidara uttered and without giving Kisame or anyone else a chance to speak, sped forward after Sasori.

~ End chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: See 1st Chapter

Warnings: See 1st Chapter

Mild usage of Japanese Terms, such as: Iwa, Danna, Sama.

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 2 - Iron

"Brat! Keep up!" Sasori snapped inside of Hiruko his traveling puppet but is also used for combat.

Deidara jolted out of his musing he'd been thinking about art, "Hai Danna un." He increased his speed until falling alongside the puppet. The last thing he needed right now was to tick Sasori off and get injured. His body was slowly recovering and he'd rather keep it that way.

Sighing Deidara glanced to the sky noting that clouds were slowly growing. It looked like there might be rain today…

"Ne Danna?" The blond asked hesitantly with a side glance at the puppet master, his hair up in the customary partial pony tail and a thick strand of hair over one side of his face. His grey headband that bore the symbol of a rock was tied around his forehead, holding back some of his hair. If Sasori was in a foul mood he'd have a better chance of dodging an attack by looking.

The other grunted making no effort to speak whatsoever.

The clay artist swallowed, silently wishing he hadn't opened his mouth. "Are we almost there?" A rather stupid question…no, it was _beyond_ stupid… With an irritated sigh directed towards himself Deidara cursed his weakness. He just _had_ to chicken out.

It was very unlike him to be meek or obedient, especially to Sasori but lately the reward for angering Sasori was more than he was willing to indulge himself in. Sometimes he wished to just blow Sasori up… even if he did respect the others art.

"Does it look like it?" The human puppet growled out. Clearly his ridiculous question had worsened Sasori's mood. Not that it was overly hard to do; Sasori was quick to anger especially when Deidara shot down his art theory – 'Art being everlasting.'

Deidara wisely didn't comment and the pair spent the rest of their trip in silence.

~88

Deidara was sure that they'd entered the land of Iron the second they hit snow seeing as Iron was a snow country.

A cold chilly breeze rushed past them as they made their way to the nearest village, Deidara wished he'd worn something warmer. His Akatsuki cloak was not very good at keeping one warm, unfortunately.

He probably should have worn covered shoes to, walking in ankle deep snow was starting to numb his feet, and the wind didn't help either. Even the teeth on his hand mouths were chattering due to the cold. He clenched his teeth together and quickened his pace upon spotting a village up ahead.

From this distance Deidara could tell it was a small village made of mostly wood. He supposed it wasn't an awful idea seeing as it snowed often, should a fire break out they'd have a convenient and fast way of putting it out.

Once inside the village the two made their way to the first inn they spotted ignoring the unsettled looks their garnered from by passers. With a grin Deidara bounded forward, "Come on Danna! Hurry un." Without waiting for a reply the blond entered the inn feeling a wave of heat wash over him.

Deidara stood inside letting the heat warm him up as Sasori made his way over to the counter to check in. Inside Hiruko Sasori was infuriatingly slow. It took them much longer to get anywhere because of it. Deidara had often voiced taking his clay bird but was constantly shot down, Sasori refused to ever get on one of his 'creations' and thus they walked. Though sometimes Deidara could get away with flying off by himself but only ended up having to wait for Sasori to catch.

"Brat! Quit daydreaming and come on!"

The deep irritated voice of Hiruko startled Deidara out of his musings. He quickly followed the other to their shared room. Kakuzu was to cheep to let them rent their own.

"Get some sleep brat. We'll start heading to the summit at dawn." The red head stated as he popped open Hiruko to start repairs.

"K…" Deidara wasted no time in burrowing under the covers of the bed and drifted off to sleep.

~88

Deidara rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he covered a yawn. Precisely at dawn Sasori had woke him up and after a very quick shower they were back out in the snow heading to the summit.

He sincerely hoped they'd finish their mission soon. Luckily it was a simple one. All they had to do was find a scroll that contained information about a sealing jutsu. If they were lucky they'd be in and out with no trouble if not he'd get to use his art.

A wide grin etched across his face at the thought of getting to use and see his art. Unlike Sasori Deidara believed that true art was fleeting; something transient. And he used clay sculptures that he detonated to prove it.

Deidara blinked as Sasori came to an abrupt stop, "Danna un?"

Ignoring the ex-iwa nin Sasori quickly exited Hiruko and summoned the 'Third Kage'. Deidara's eye widen for an instant thinking Sasori was going to attack him but realized how absurd that would be when Hiruko worked just as well.

Shifting his attention Deidara noted that they had company in the form of men in white; the Samurai.

Just as the blond swallowed the 'Third Kage' attacked sending poisoned senbon. The Samurai were completely unprepared and instantly killed, their bodies collapsing into the snow, the white of their outfits blending in well with the snow.

"Pay more attention brat." Sasori hissed as he settled back into Hiruko. Deidara vaguely nodded and the two once again started walking.

After traveling for a few hours the artists finally came to the summit. Deidara had never cared to see 'the three wolves' mountain' but it was certainly an interesting thing to see. It'd look even better blown up.

Scanning the area Deidara noted, "There's no guards un." To be sure he brushed away the blond fringe that covered the one side of his face and used his scope that was placed firmly over one of his eyes. Maybe the one's Sasori took care of were the guards.

"We'll split up. Meet in an hour right here." Sasori muttered as he shuffled forward inside of Hiruko. "And don't blow anything up. We don't want any trouble. Got it, brat?"

Scowling Deidara huffed with a glare. Sasori didn't have to treat him like a stupid irresponsible child. He wasn't as bad as he had been at thirteen. But no matter how many years passed Sasori still treated him roughly the same… like dirt. "Hai Danna." At times like this Deidara wondered what he had seen in Sasori so much back then.

Back when Deidara had first joined the Akatsuki, (unwillingly) he had grown respect and even admiration for the puppet master. About three months in Deidara had given Sasori the nickname 'Danna.' Sasori had been irritated and pissed at first but as time passed Sasori preferred to be called 'Danna.' He'd relished the term.

Six months after Sasori accepted the nickname Deidara had gone from calling him 'Danna' with respect to saying it mockingly. Unfortunately it didn't irate the older nin like Deidara had hoped. Their arguing had grown worse and Deidara hated the nickname 'brat'. So the blond resorted to 'Danna' in a less then favorable tone. When it failed he stopped calling Sasori 'Danna.'

Unfortunately Sasori was less then pleased and demanded he call him 'Danna'. After a very painful experience Deidara from that day forward called him 'Danna'.

Sasori had some serious issues…

Deidara blinked before focusing on the entrance noting that Sasori was gone from sight. Realizing that he was wasting time Deidara bolted inside to find the scroll.

~88

"Argh…" This is the third room he'd checked… Growling low in irritation Deidara crossed his arms across his chest and glared. Hopefully Sasori was having better luck…

Deidara kept his eyes alert despite the lack of guards (Any ninja would be stupid not to especially criminals). Coming to another room the blond strode in, a quick glance told him this room looked promising.

After five minutes and coming up with nothing the blond groaned. _I hope I run into some ninja's…_ This was a boring mission and he wasn't having any luck he'd rather go for a fight, despite not being one hundred percent yet. Not being at full strength wouldn't hamper him… not unless he had to do just taijutsu. Exiting the room and making it a few paces did realization dawn.

There was no ninja's in the land of Iron. Sure they could use chakra but only to an extent. Even if he did run into more samurai they'd be no challenge. Still despite Iron being a neutral country didn't mean that he couldn't run into ninja.

Either way…

At least he'd get to use his art. Sure Sasori said not to blow anything up but if he had company they would be fair game.

~88

Exactly an hour later Sasori sat huddled in Hiruko at the entrance to the summit waiting for his idiotic partner. As the seconds ticked down his patience waned… he hated waiting.

"Damn that brat. I said an hour." He growled out pissed. A shout cut off his murderous thoughts, "Danna!"

_Finally… _Sasori thought impatiently.

As the blond stopped before him Sasori grounded out, "You're late!" Not a second later he swung Hiruko's tail at the now mildly surprised blond. "You know how much I hate waiting!" Watching as the blond ducked his attack and jerked back to a safe distance.

"I'm sorry Danna un!" The blond pleaded. He really didn't want to get poisoned. It was not fun.

"Tch. Let's go. I found the scroll." Without waiting for a response Sasori headed away from the summit.

"Really?" Deidara chocked out in mild surprise. He'd had no luck; he hadn't even run into any samurai, which was mildly odd… There should have been more.

At least Sasori wasn't maiming him or injecting him with poison… yet. He hadn't even been that late… it was what… a minute? Sighing he crossed his arms irritated at his partners complete lack of waiting ability as he strolled off after him. At least their mission was over and he'd gotten out of it with no bodily harm from Sasori.

~88

Water pelted his face, his eyes closed as he washed his long blond hair.

Both Sasori and he had gotten back from their mission close to an hour ago. As Sasori headed off to Pein's office to deliver the scroll Deidara zoomed to their shared room to take a nice warm shower.

He was in heaven… or pretty close to it. After being in the snow and then in the rain the water felt wonderful on his skin. It had started raining several miles from their current base much to his ire.

Deidara opened his blue eyes, wishing he could stay in forever… he sighed as he turned the water off knowing that if he took too long he'd be hearing from Kakuzu.

Once dressed, his hair dried (still damp) he brushed his hair and collapsed onto his bed shifting under the covers and closed his eyes, content for the time being.

His contentment didn't last long. "Brat." Deidara's eyes shot open as his head was shoved to the side roughly and in the next moment a familiar prick on his neck sent a chill down his spine. Apparently Sasori was furious about the little wait he had to do back in Iron.

Great… He had hoped he could make it a few more days before Sasori punished him in the form of poison. He hadn't even heard the other come in…

His vision blurred and his hands gripped the sheets tightly as intense pain flared. The poison was fast acting, like most of them usually are. The first time he came into contact with Sasori's poisons not counting from Hiruko's tail was when Sasori asked him to test a poison for him.

Deidara had been very reluctant at first but Sasori had assured him that it was only suppose to cause mild discomfort and difficulty in moving. He had been foolish to believe Sasori's word. These occurrences took place more often, and despite his response being 'no' Sasori had resorted to restraining him and injecting him in places that were not commonly visible to others. Mostly it was done in his neck.

When not needing a test subject he used his poisons as punishment for anything Sasori deemed had displeased him enough to warrant one.

He tried to stay on Sasori's good side but somehow he always pissed him off. Deidara had often thought about telling Pein but usually discarded the thought as soon as it popped into his head. Why would Pein care? They were criminals and so long as they completed their assigned missions Pein could care less about things. And even if he did care, what would be the odds that Pein would believe him?

Sure members were forbidden in killing off their partners except on the very first mission and if it did happen it wasn't like Pein could really do anything about it. And Sasori always made sure that there would be no interruptions from anyone during the duration that Deidara would be under the poison's effects.

Usually it was a few days and even if something came up Deidara's condition would be played off as him being ill.

And to his misfortune Sasori made sure that the poison wouldn't cause screaming, since that would attract the other members. It was a good thing, in Sasori's case that Deidara had a good pain tolerance.

Deidara whined lowly, wishing that he wouldn't be awake for the effects but the poison prevented him from sleeping. _Unfortunately. _Deidara thought despairingly.

He was in for a few miserable days… at times like this Deidara intensely wished he hadn't been forced into the Akatsuki by Itachi.

"Why? Sasori… why do you hate me so much?" Deidara whispered. If Sasori replied to his quiet question Deidara didn't hear it.

~ End Chapter

Next one will be longer, promise.

I know that Dei could just walk on top of the snow with chakra but I didn't think about that till after. So I left it and it conserves chakra… not that he really needs to

Posted: 02/11/2012


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: See 1st Chapter

Warnings: See 1st Chapter

Mild usage of Japanese Terms, such as: Chan, Danna, Sama.

Zetsu white side – "Normal."

Zetsu **dark** side – **"Bold."**

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 3 – Poison and Fury

"I'm going out to get breakfast. Stay out of trouble Tobi. **Or I'll eat you!" **Zetsu, a plant like male with half of his body white and the other half black stated.

"Tobi's a good boy!" The hyperactive male shouted to the plant like male with yellow eyes.

"Hmm… What should Tobi do now?" The masked male muttered rubbing the back of his head with one gloved hand.

Tilting his head to the side he crossed his arms in thought. _Tobi could go pester someone! That's fun!_ The raven sighed when he remembered that everyone was out on a mission aside from Pein and his partner and Zetsu obviously.

"Oh well…" Tobi took a seat on the couch in the living room his eye landing on the TV. Annoying the other members wasn't something Tobi really enjoyed… but it was part of the mask he had assumed to hide his identity. He really only liked teasing Deidara. His reactions were funny not to mention he was even cuter when angry.

He supposed it was kind of a hobby. And while doing so he got to spend time with _his_ blond. Not being a member, damped a lot of his time being around those who were members. Not that it would remain thus forever; he had already set it up with Pein. Should/when Sasori died Tobi would take his place and become Deidara's new partner.

If Sasori wasn't a valuable member he would have killed him himself. But that would be wasteful.

Blinking Tobi broke from his thoughts in order to turn the television on. With no one at the base of importance – that he could annoy, Tobi could watch something none childish.

Stopping on a drama the raven leaned back against the couch, not particularly focused on the program.

Roughly ten minutes into the show did Tobi realize something that had slipped his mind earlier. Deidara and Sasori returned to the base late last night. Therefore he could go see _his _blond.

With an ecstatic grin that was not visible due to his mask, Tobi shot up from the couch and bolted out of the room, down the hall and to the artists shared room.

Upon reaching his desired location, Tobi threw the door open with a shrill shout, "SENPAI!"

His attention swiveled around the room briefly noting the lack of the red head before hurrying over to the clay artist's bed.

The blond lay under the covers a few strands of golden blond hair peeking out. Tobi came to a stop beside the bed and noted with mild concern that the blond was trembling.

Was he crying?

"Senpai?" Tobi asked softly.

The orange masked male received no response. Reaching out with a hand, he touched the blonds' shoulder gently, the tremors shooting up his arm. With a frown Tobi shook the blonds' shoulder lightly earning a pained grunt from the teen.

Shifting the blond unto his back Tobi removed the blanket from the teens face, revealing a pale, sweating and flush face. His eyes were tightly shut and his expression was etched with pain.

Tobi didn't need to be a genius to know that the blond was ill.

Gently Tobi shifted his hand to the teens face, lightly brushing golden hair from the younger males face.

"Poor Senpai." Tobi cooed.

Deidara groaned and if he could he would have swatted the hand on his face off, the cool material giving some relief from the pain but he knew it wouldn't last for long before it burned. Struggling Deidara pried his mouth open and in as strong of a voice as he could muster uttered, "G-go away, Tobi."

The masked male completely ignored the blonds' words as he removed his hand from the others face. "Senpai's sick-"

"N-no shit un." Deidara interrupted with a growl. Anything else he wanted to say died, talking proved to be rather daunting at the moment so Deidara opted to stop speaking.

Thrusting his arms in the air the raven exclaimed with zeal, "Tobi will make Senpai some soup! It'll make you feel much better!"

Deidara sincerely doubted that as Tobi vacated the room, he was sick because of the poison. No simple soup was going to fix that.

Panting heavily Deidara pressed his face into his pillow as best he could being on his back. If he could he'd go back onto his side… but that wasn't going to happen in his state. Stupid Tobi…

~88

Tobi rummaged in the kitchen till he came across a can of soup. Thrilled Tobi set about preparing the soup. The masked wearing male resorted to pacing the empty kitchen while he waited for the soup to cook.

Idly Tobi wondered if Deidara being ill was due to his lack of eating. Deidara still ate but he tended to skip a meal here and there. And that was not healthy. It also didn't help that Sasori didn't require food, and with his intense dislike (more like hate) of waiting, Tobi wondered how often Deidara managed to eat when they were on missions.

Knowing it was rather pointless to dwell on such things Tobi would just make sure Deidara ate while he was here at the base.

~88

"Senpai!" Tobi burst back into the artists shared room with the soup; making sure to keep his tone milder. With the blonde not feeling well, loud noises might irritate his head.

As he shuffled over to the ill teen, Tobi noted that Sasori was now in the room, sitting at his work table.

"Senpai," He repeated. "I brought you chicken and noodle!"

Focused as he was on the blond he missed the narrowing of Sasori's chocolate eyes, as he placed the hot bowl on the night stand near the bed next to Deidara's eye scope.

_What's that idiot doing here? I thought he was out scouting with Zetsu._ Sasori thought agitated and mildly worried. It was a common thing for Tobi and Zetsu to be gone, usually scouting. The poison was still heavy in the blonds system. Now Tobi wasn't the brightest of persons but it wouldn't be impossible to discover that what the blond had was no normal sickness.

Sasori didn't want to think what could possibly be the reproductions to constantly poisoning his teammate. He knew the brat wouldn't rat him out, even if Tobi realized it was poison and not a sickness, he could pass it off as Deidara messing with his poisons and accidentally injecting himself. It was a relativity harmless poison, meaning it wouldn't kill him. So the fact that the blond was laying there suffering could be passed off as 'it was the brat's own fault' and Sasori saw no reason to make an antidote for the other's stupidity.

Sasori kept part of his attention on the puppet he was repairing and the other on Tobi and the brat.

"Do you think you can sit up Senpai?" Tobi asked softly. The blonds' trembling seemed to have abated slightly.

Deidara inwardly groaned, it hurt to talk and moving was out of the question, knowing Tobi he'd probably keep pestering him till he ate the soup. Which would require him to sit up and Deidara sincerely doubted he could pull that off, just laying here hurt. He wished the dumbass would just leave.

"G-go away…" Ignoring Tobi wouldn't solve anything. Usually Tobi ignored him until he threw a bomb at the dumbass but he _was _'sick' so he hoped Tobi would be nice enough to do as he said.

"But Senpai… eating something will he-" Tobi trailed off as Deidara shifted his face away from him, strands of hair falling away from the blonds face and neck.

If he hadn't had been as close as possible to the azure eyed teen he might have missed it, there on the side of the blonds neck was a tiny hole. Gently, slowly Tobi trailed a gloved hand over the small almost invisible hole.

His eye narrowed and he frowns deeply. Concentrating he focused on the blonds charka, finding it to be severely out of whack. There were traces of a substance in the blonds' system, more accurately poison.

Not removing his gaze from the hole on the teen's neck Tobi asked cheerfully "Ne Sasori-san?" After receiving a grunt letting him know he had the other's attention he continued. "Did you and Senpai run into any trouble on your mission?"

"I would hardly call it trouble." Sasori scoffed. Tobi titled his head away from the blond and in Sasori's direction, prompting the other to go on. "On our way there (Tobi is aware it was Iron) we had a brief run in with some Samurai, I quickly dispensed of them."

Shifting back to the blond Tobi hummed quietly. "Then why does Senpai have poison in his system?"

Sasori stilled his eyes narrowing. He quickly contemplated the idea of saying Tobi was mistaken or go with his plan. Tobi was an idiot, not bright by any means so convincing Tobi that he was clearly imaging things shouldn't be too hard. However with Tobi's protectiveness towards the blond, he could forgo everything he said and inform Pein. Who would not go with 'imaging things'.

"While I was giving our report, Deidara got into some of my poisons and accidently injected himself. Seeing as how it was the brat's fault I saw no reason to make an antidote. Besides it won't kill him." Sasori boredly stated.

"Injected himself!?" Tobi gasped incredulously. "How did that happen? Senpai's not so carless!"

Sasori eyed the male flatly, irritated at how loud he was being, "Well clearly the brat was being carless, he nicked his arm good and that's all it took."

Tobi stilled, his arms at his sides as he focused on Sasori with a frown before sighing, "I guess Senpai won't be eating his soup then…" Turning back to the blond he uttered softly, "Tobi will come see Senpai later! Okay Senpai!" With that Tobi left leaving Sasori to close his eyes with relief.

Deidara couldn't help but think Tobi was more of an idiot then he first thought. Seriously, why would he be messing with Sasori's poisons…? How could Tobi just buy that? His thoughts flopped, while jolting from the aggravating pain coursing through his body, he cursed Sasori for existing.

~88

Paper work…, more paper work. He hated paper work. Pein rubbed tiredly at his rinnegan eyes and suppressed a yawn. He really should appoint an aide. He'd get done faster… Deidara was quite good at doing paper work. Or so he heard… Apparently the blond could work on the damn stuff for hours and not be sick of it.

Unfortunately it wouldn't do him any good when the blond had missions. And Deidara couldn't sign for him, so he'd still have to go back through them to sign them. Plus there were things the blond was not to know…

So much for that idea. Pein groaned sadly.

Picking up his pen again Pein was about to get back to work when, the sound of the door flying open stilled his hand, "Leader-sama!" Pein's eye twitched, of course it was Tobi, everyone else knocked even Konan had the decency to… sometimes.

"What is it?" Pein asked not the least bit interested.

The masked nin came to a stop in front of the brown wooden desk covered in papers. "It's about Deidara."

Pein's attention flew to the other in a flash. It was rare for Tobi not to talk in his childish, annoying voice. The masked males words processed and Pein felt worry slowly bubble inside him. Deidara was the youngest member at eighteen years old and everyone save for Sasori had a soft spot for the kid, even Itachi.

There was just something about the kid that made people want to protect him. He just had this charisma and such passion, mostly when concerning his art that was unparallel. Deidara had brought life into the Akatsuki since joining and even though the others never said it out loud they were grateful. Akatsuki was like one big family with Sasori being the one grouchy scrooge about practically everything; though Kakuzu was capable of being a scrooge to.

"He's been poisoned." Pein blinked, out of everything it could have been that was not what he was expecting. His mind wondered to last night when Sasori gave the report about the land of Iron. He hadn't mentioned Deidara at all. "Is it lethal? Has he been given the antidote?"

The masked male crossed his arms tightly; Pein could feel the anger coming off the other. It was nice to know it wasn't directed at him, as he felt a chill travel up his spine.

"No." At Pein's startled look, Tobi continued. "Deidara wasn't poised on their mission." He stated with anger dripping in his tone.

"Not on the mission?" Pein wondered in confusion eyes closing in thought. If it wasn't from the mission then how? Sasori hadn't said anything…

Pein's eyes widened, focusing back on the older male, "It was Sasori's doing." The masked nin confirmed icily.

It had been a long time since he'd felt such anger flare, he doubted the other was lying and that he was certain of his accusation. "There is a puncture hole in Deidara's neck. According to Sasori, Deidara was messing with his poisons and nicked his arm." Tobi informed the spiky orange haired male.

Pein stood up; schooling his expression before following the other to the artists shared room.

~88

Sasori had returned to making adjustments to his puppet, ignoring the occasional pain filled groan from the blond.

He honestly couldn't understand why everyone liked the kid. Sure everyone gave the brat a hard time constantly but they _cared_ about him. Sasori doubted the blond was aware, seeing as he loathed the Akatsuki and was constantly insulting Itachi and everyone else.

He could admit that the brat was strong, capable and was certainly qualified to be an Akatsuki member but the brat was energetic, optimistic, annoying and had misguided views on art. As much as he detested Orochimaru for leaving he'd rather have him as a partner then the blond who adamantly believed that 'true art was fleeting'.

Such nonsense. He sincerely hoped the brat would get killed someday soon, six years of putting up with the kid was more than enough for him. If he wouldn't have more than likely gotten killed by Pein he would have disemboweled the brat himself.

And if he wasn't killed he'd be left with getting a new partner and he really didn't have the patience to deal with someone new. Teaching them and training them when he had a brat obediently trained… most of the time, already.

And as much as the brat tried his limited patience and grated on his nerves practically every second of the day he really liked being called 'Danna'. It was such a thing for his ego.

His thoughts derailed at the opening of the door.

_It better not be Tobi again. _Sasori thought in annoyance. His patience for Tobi was even lower then it is for Deidara.

"Senpai!" Tobi squealed with concern as he zipped over to the blonds' bedside. Even if loud noises caused Deidara any pain it'd be insignificant to what he is already feeling.

_Great. _Sasori inwardly scowled. When Tobi said he'd see the brat later he figured it'd be at least several hours later. It'd barely been an hour since the idiot left. Sasori pointedly ignored the masked male and kept his attention on his puppet.

Through the haze of blinding pain Deidara inwardly groaned suppressing the noise of pain from seeping out of his mouth, _Fuck! He's back._

Pein traveled the scant distance to the bed containing the poisoned teen, stopping besides the slightly taller male. Rinnegan eyes going to the lightly tanned neck, and instantly landing on the small puncture hole Tobi spoke of earlier.

Deidara's breathing was shallow, his features (from what he could see of due to the angle of the others head) was lined with pain; his body trembling every now and then and he was very pale and sweaty. He placed a hand gently on the blonds' cheek and felt intense heat emanating from his skin.

His anger sky rocketed, Sasori had no right! Experimenting and purposely harming one's partner was not tolerated. Sure Kakuzu tended to main Hidan as well as Hidan doing such to himself, but Hidan was immortal thanks to his religion: Jashin and could not die.

In training – fine. In a fit of anger strike your partner (or a fellow member) – fine. But poisoning was clearly going out of the way and considering the place of the injection site, deliberate.

"Sasori." Pein hissed out not bothering to hide the venomous in his tone, as he removed his hand from Deidara's face.

Sasori instantly froze. Apparently Tobi wasn't alone. And apparently Tobi hadn't believed his story if Pein's tone was anything to go by.

Sasori turned enough so that he was fully facing the pierced male whose eyes were focused on Deidara, Tobi stood on the other side of Pein.

Pein didn't wait for Sasori to reply, "Is there any reason that you poisoned Deidara?" His voiced clipped as he settled his gaze on the puppet master.

"What makes you say I did it?" Sasori blatantly denied.

Pein's rinnegan eyes narrowed dangerously and Sasori knew Pein didn't by his lie. "Tch. What's the big deal? It's not like the poison will kill him."

Pein clenched his hands tightly, his eyes closing for a few moments to calm his fury. Besides him Pein felt Tobi's aura darken with ill intent. He swiftly raised an arm, indicating to the masked male to stay put.

Reopening his eyes he glared furiously at the red head who stared back none repentant at his actions a bored look etched onto his wooden face.

Sighing heavily Pein jerked towards the door, "Come with me." His tone brook no argument.

"You've gone soft on the brat. He's completely worthless." Sasori stated anyway despite Pein's obvious anger at him.

Tobi's hands clenched tightly and Pein knew that he was barely keeping himself from launching himself at the other. Sasori was still a member and killing him would be unbeneficial. Lucky Sasori…

"I _care _about all my members, and would be angry to if it was someone else in Deidara's place. But you certainly have tried me." Pein tonelessly uttered. "Come. I will not say it again."

Sasori knew not to push Pein any farther and stood, just as he passed Tobi, who surprisingly had remained quite all this time, voiced with a hint of malicious intent aimed at him, "Senpai is not worthless. He's a better shinobi then you by a long shot."

"Don't be so deluded. Your affections for the brat have clouded what little brain you have." Sasori growled back. Sasori was not one to let others talk down to him; he had to get the last say. He exited the room ignoring the cold (metaphorically) feeling at the tone of the idiot.

~88

The second the door shut behind the red head Pein whirled around "Sasori." Waiting till the other was looking at him. "If you pull another stunt like this again, I don't care how valuable you are to this organization. I will have you removed."

Sasori scoffed crossing his arms; there wasn't anyone else capable of replacing him, perhaps Orochimaru but he would never be part of the Akatsuki again. "Of course you will." The red head muttered with pure sarcasm.

If hitting Sasori wouldn't have been absolutely pointless Pein (Not to mention Tobi would have at least punched him) would have done so. "I already have someone to replace you. And he, I believe is a much better candidate then you have shown today." Pein was clearly not talking about just skills.

Sasori's eyes narrowed in disbelief, wracking his brain as to who it could possibly be. When his mind failed to supply him with anyone of merit Sasori growled; "Who?"

Pein thinly smirked at Sasori's tone relishing the fact that Sasori was clearly displeased if not still a little skeptical of someone replacing him. "Why… the only subordinate in this organization."

"Tobi!?" Sasori's arms fell to his sides, his tone stating his surprise. "You can't be serious!"

"Deadly." Pein stated with a raise of his thin eyebrow.

Sasori took a step forward his features murderous, "That idiot is far from being a capable replacement for me! Have you lost it?!" As usual Sasori lacked in respect.

"I'm not the one who's 'lost it'." Pein murmured. "If you wish to keep your spot in this organization not to mention your life I suggest you reframe from poisoning Deidara again or physically harming him." Pein turned away from the red head and took a seat at his desk.

"As punishment for your actions you will be taking a mission; once I decide on which one and Hidan will accompany you. Then you will be confined to the hideout until it is necessary for you and Deidara to have a mission."

Sasori frowned in anger, "That Zealot will just get in the way. I can go alone." He much preferred handling missions by himself anyway. Sasori plainly ignored the last bit of Pein's statement.

"No. I'm aware you love going solo. This is a punishment, so therefore Hidan is going with you." Pein stated firmly. He was also aware that Sasori despised Hidan for cussing and his loudness. "Also give Deidara the antidote." As much as Pein would love to know _why_ Sasori was poisoning the teen it really didn't matter what the other's reasons were, so refrained from going into that can of worms.

Sasori looked ready to attack him, lucky for Sasori the red head was smart enough to not do so. "Get out of my face." Pein's tone leaving no room for anymore talking, picking up his pen to start on the paper work again.

~88

Deidara blearily opened an eye as he felt the bed shift as Tobi took a seat. He was surprised that Pein was mad at Sasori for poisoning him, Tobi he could understand but _Pein?_

"Senpai…" Tobi uttered softly as he gently brushed blond hair away from Deidara's face before gripping the teens chin and gently turning his head till he was facing him.

Deidara's eye was partly open and glazed while the other remained closed.

"Senpai." He repeated. "How long has this been going on?" Tobi questioned in a slightly deeper tone than usual.

If Deidara didn't hurt so much, he probably would have noticed the strange quality to Tobi's voice. As it were he heard it as he always heard the others voice. Grating and annoying, childishly a given. The clay artist struggled to focus his gaze on the swirled orange mask but irritatingly it remained a blob of orange.

"F-first time…un." Deidara chocked out, giving up on focusing and closing his eye. Why was he lying for Sasori? He certainly didn't owe the other in any way. So why…? Perhaps it was because if Sasori found out he told Sasori would make him regret it. He was… tired of hurting…

Tobi's eye narrowed, "Do not lie to me… Senpai." Deidara felt Tobi's grip tighten marginally but it didn't hurt. Tobi was behaving slightly odd…

Deidara shakily tired to jerk his head but hardly succeeded. He was weak and it was embarrassing to be seen in this condition! It made him feel worse having Tobi see him in such a state not to mention that Pein had as well. No doubt he had lost value in Pein's eyes.

"N-not l-long…" Deidara gasped shakily.

Tobi sighed quietly at the blonds' stubbornness, while brushing a gloved thumb over the artist's lips as he uttered softly, "Why do you defend him?"

Defend? It was hardly…

Deidara suppose in a way it was such. A particularly sharp jolt in his chest broke his thoughts and he groaned, his hands tightening in the crumpled sheets.

It hurt, Tobi reflected. Deidara laid suffering in pain and there wasn't anything he could do to take away the pain. There wasn't even anything he could do to help ease the pain. Releasing Deidara's chin Tobi rose from the bed, just as he went to speak the door opened.

Tobi's anger returned as Sasori stepped into the room. A part of him had hoped that Pein would kill the bastard.

Sasori went straight to his work bench and after a few moments of shifting through his belongings Sasori picked up a small vial. He had several poisons that worked with one antidote. He hadn't made one for the one the brat had in his system but this antidote would work just fine. Not as fast but he didn't care…

Turning Sasori strolled over to the brat with pointedly ignoring Tobi who was watching his every movement.

Tobi seriously doubted that Sasori would harm the blond in any way with him in the room but shifted ever so slightly, signaling with his body that he would step in if the red head tried anything funny.

Bending down slightly Sasori moved his hand to the blonds' neck that contained the antidote, and pressed it into the flesh of the skin; injecting the substance. Removing the vial Sasori shuffled over to his bench and settled down to work on his puppet.

Tobi returned his attention to Deidara, who was breathing easier and color was slowly coming back into his cheeks. Feeling a little better now that his blond had been given the antidote he turned towards the cold soup and picked it up.

"Tobi will bring Senpai some more soup!" And without farther words and with one more glance at the recovering teen Tobi left the room.

~88

Tobi sat in the kitchen his head down in thought. He'd wait a bit before bringing Deidara food. Wait for the blond to feel better. He doubted at this moment that he'd be willing to eat just yet.

Kisame entered the kitchen with Itachi, who took a seat on the other side of the table of where Tobi sat. His onyx eyes studying the quite nin who was known as the loudest in the organization.

Kisame sat down besides Itachi with a plate of dango, Itachi's favorite food. After Itachi took a bite Kisame picked up a stick his eyes settling on the unusual quiet nin. "Oi Tobi! Something wrong?"

The masked male let loose an inaudible sigh, lifting his head "Nope Tobi's just peachy!"

Kisame took a bite looking a tad skeptical "Really?"

"Yep! Tobi's his usual Tobi self!" The black clad nin shouted before standing and hurrying over to the stove where he'd left the soup. Grabbing a bowl and transferring the soup into the bowl he rushed out of the room with a, "Senpai's not feeling well, so Tobi's bringing him soup!"

Kisame took another bite with a hum, "Was that as odd to you as it was to me?"

Itachi took a bite savoring it before swallowing, "Hn."

Kisame frowned, "I wonder what's wrong with him?" He doubted it would be because the kid got sick. Sure he knew Tobi admired Deidara following him around and pestering him whenever he could but to be upset of the kid getting sick… It just didn't fit for someone as cheerful as Tobi to let this get to him. Someone sick would get better.

Besides it wasn't like Deidara hadn't been sick at least once since joining. Kisame couldn't recall Tobi taking it this bad then as he was today.

Ah well… everyone had their off days.

~88 (Been a few hours since Deidara was given the antidote)

"Tch." Deidara was seriously contemplating cutting his hair. Having to work the knots out of his hair as often as he was having to do so was not worth it. He slid the brush down one last time before running a mouthed hand cleanly through, satisfied.

Instead of cutting, he could always try braiding his hair and having it as such while he slept. It would certainly take care of the knots. On the down side it would turn his hair wavy. And unfortunately he didn't know how to braid.

If he seriously decided to braid his hair he'd have to learn. And to do that would be asking Konan, the only female member, surely she'd know even though she had shoulder length hair.

Sighing Deidara shut his eyes, he really didn't find it appealing to ask Konan something like that. Oh well it was just a thought…

Breathing deeply Deidara opened his eyes, before slowly glancing at his silent partner. He didn't need to be a genius to know that Sasori was less then pleased that he'd been found out. Or that he was blaming Deidara, even though it was far from his fault.

He was just glad the pain was diminishing. He could finally move without pain singeing him and breathe easier. Even his insides no longer felt as if they were boiling, all that was left were dull aches and a mild numbing feeling.

Shaking his head as if that would help to dispel his thoughts the blond bent over the side of his bed and pulled out a grey bag filled with clay.

Grinning, Deidara settled the bag beside him as he took a decent portion out. It had been far too long since he got to create art. And although he was in no mood to detonate them he could still mold the clay.

The tongue in his left hand lightly prodded the substance before swallowing the blob of clay. After Deidara deemed it wet enough his tongue popped out with the clay and he began making a bird. Birds, owls they were his favorite, and more often than not it's what he created when he wasn't trying to develop something new.

Once molding the clay into a realistic bird, Deidara held it up; inspecting it. With a hum, he crushed the bird and started again.

Half way through the second bird the door opened with a shrill shout that made his ears ring, "Senpai! Tobi brought soup!"

Why? Why did Tobi like pestering him? Ever since he'd joined the guy had taken to following him around and trying to get to know him. Deidara just didn't understand why Tobi was so insistent. He'd even started calling him 'Senpai' from the second they met, it was infuriating but slowly as time passed Deidara got somewhat used to the nick name. At least it wasn't 'Dei-chan', he didn't mind Kisame calling him such but from Hidan and anyone else, it was off limits. Of course that didn't stop Hidan from calling him that; usually with sarcasm.

He respected Kisame more than anyone in the Akatsuki, more than Sasori now who'd had that title first back when Deidara had unwillingly joined.

If someone asked if/who he was closest to in the organization Deidara would have to say Kisame, he was just very friendly despite his shark like appearance. And he was very understanding, back when things with Sasori had taken a turn for the worse Deidara had often complained about it to Kisame. He was also the one who helped him adjust to life in the Akatsuki.

If Tobi ever started calling him that he'd be blown to little tiny pieces before he could blink. (Or so he says now)

"I'm not hungry… un." Deidara grunted as the masked male arrived besides his bed a hot bowl of soup in his gloved hands.

Tobi titled his head to the side, "B-but Senpai you haven't eaten anything in who knows how long!" The nin shouted, waving one arm as if to gesture the amount of time. "And you were just 'sick'! You need to eat something!"

By the end of Tobi's rapid talking Deidara's eye was twitching and he was trying to control his temper. Not even five minutes and the dumbass had already annoyed him.

"Please Senpai? At least have a few bites!"

Knowing the other could go on for hours Deidara relented. "Fine!" And not a second later Tobi squealed and bolted onto the artist's bed, settling besides him; a little to close in Deidara's opinion, before thrusting the bowl of soup into the blonds face.

Setting down his bird, Deidara took the bowl from the other sighing in agitation. Apparently Tobi wouldn't leave until he ate…

Picking up the spoon he quickly scooped up some creamy soup then shoved it into his mouth. A few more bites followed and just as another made it part way to its destination, "You're looking much better Senpai."

Because Deidara was facing forward, his bang covered the one side of his face blocking Tobi from view. Replacing his spoon he held out the white bowl to the masked male. "Here un."

"B-but Senpai-!"

"You said a few, I had a few." Deidara growled. "Take it and go."

The black clothed nin took the bowl, before getting off the bed. "Tobi's a good boy!"

Deidara ran a painted hand over his face, _seriously? Tobi's _still_ sprouting that crap…_

Deidara blinked before jerking back startled as Tobi shoved his masked face into his. "The hell dumbass!"

"Senpai still looks a little pale… You should get some sleep." Tobi uttered softly.

Regaining his composure quickly, Deidara scoffed. Tobi pulled back as Deidara hissed, "Just go already!"

"You don't have to be so mean Senpai! Tobi's only worried about you!" He uttered sadly.

Deidara not knowing what exactly to say to that, sighed, "Yeah… yeah."

Once Tobi was gone Deidara let a small smile spread over his face. It was nice to have someone admit that they cared.

Glancing around to note that Sasori was not paying him any mind, as usual Deidara picked up his clay bird to start molding again, where he would continue to sculpt for a good portion of the rest of the day.

~End Chapter

Longer! Just like I promised

Posted: 02/19/2013


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: See 1st Chapter

Warnings: See 1st Chapter

Mild usage of Japanese Terms, such as: Chan, Danna, Sama.

**Genre **– Adding Adventure

Zetsu white side – "Normal."

Zetsu **dark** side – **"Bold."**

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 4 – The Mission

~88 (Two Months Later)

Sasori stormed back into the Akatsuki base glad that his mission with the loud mouth Hidan was finished. It would have been somewhat tolerable if Hidan wasn't constantly cussing and being rude and unbearable.

The mission which was to wipe out an enemy strong hold and their leader posing as two females, would have ended much sooner not to mention much simpler if Hidan hadn't come.

Sasori was beyond pissed at Pein for sending him on such a ridiculous mission (posing as a female) lucky for Sasori he was able to henge into one instead of dressing up. Being a puppet he doubted he'd have been able to pull it off. Deidara would have pulled the look of a female much better, he was quite feminine looking and his long hair helped add to his looks.

Then having to deal with Hidan's constant arguing over everything he said, and going so far as to ignore his words… If it wouldn't have risked their mission he would have sliced the Zealot into pieces and left him there.

Though he supposed if he wanted to be technical it wasn't exactly Pein's fault, it was Deidara's. If the stupid brat hadn't of gotten him caught, this entire mission wouldn't have happened. (Unless he got sent with Deidara, but then things would have gone differently)

_Damn that brat! _Sasori hissed inwardly as he turned a corner, his Akatsuki cloak billowing ever so slightly at his fast pace. He was out of Hiruko, traveling in his puppet with Hidan had proved too much for his patience and thus the mission was done without him.

He came to a stop at the end of the hallway at the only door down this corridor. Not bothering to knock, as usual Sasori entered Pein's office.

~88

Deidara hummed as he sculpted a deep look of concentration on his face his eye sharply focused. His long blond hair was up in his usual half pony tail with on thick strand of hair covering one side of his face. He wore his navy blue fish net shirt and navy pants.

Things at the base had been much better without Sasori and Hidan. The only thing the feminine blond had to deal with was Tobi; everyone else was rather neutral towards him. Which was a little odd, seeing as they constantly poked fun at him and tried (often times succeeding) in pissing him off.

In the first week of things Deidara had the thought that maybe Pein informed everyone about what happened between Sasori and him. He debated about asking Kisame, as he really didn't want to bring it up with Pein; but then realized that if Kisame hadn't been told then he'd be spilling the beans.

He'd given up on finding out why everyone was being almost _nice _to him and decided to enjoy it while it lasted.

Tobi was the lone exception (not counting Pein as he acted his usual aloof self), the masked male was bugging him almost every second he had a chance. But despite that Deidara was glad for something normal.

Deidara didn't bother looking up as the door opened certain that it was Tobi again. The door shut quietly, soft footsteps traveled across the floor. Deidara paid it no mind as he finished up his creation.

"Brat."

Deidara instantly froze a chill going down his spine. He swallowed thickly and slowly glanced up. His azure eyes settling on the face of Sasori; who was at the edge of his bed. "Yes Danna?" Deidara murmured feeling fear build up at Sasori's closeness.

A hand shot out, almost too fast for Deidara to see as it latched onto his throat, and in a quick movement he was slammed onto his back.

Deidara gasped, chocking as he struggled to get air into his lungs, Sasori was gripping hard enough that it was cutting off his air.

Snapping a mouthed hand up he clasped Sasori's wrist and tugged in an effort to pry the others hand off.

"D-da…" Deidara chocked out, gritting his teeth.

Sasori leaned over the blond from besides the bed, eyes narrowed with hate. "I may not be able to poison you anymore but don't think I can't physically harm you." Sasori tightened his grip on the blonds' neck to emphasize his point watching detachedly as the teen cringed with pain. He sincerely doubted Pein would kill him for physical abuse.

Deidara was starting to feel light headed. He frantically pulled on Sasori's arm with no luck. Gasping, he tried to speak but no words formed. Out of options Deidara struggled, jerking his body in hopes of dislodging Sasori's grip.

"You're pathetic." Sasori scoffed, feeling nothing but sick satisfaction at watching the blond suffer. Finally Sasori released the brat's neck when the other looked about ready to pass out. "You say a word to _anyone _brat…" Sasori left the threat hanging. He doubted that the blond would tell the promise of a painful repercussion would prevent him.

Deidara gasped, huffing as he struggled to get air back into his deprived lungs. For a few seconds there Deidara thought he would pass out.

Chest heaving Deidara closed his eyes, listening as Sasori headed over to his work bench and took a seat. _To think_, Deidara thought with a grimace as he lightly rubbed his throat, _that today started off so well…_

~88

For the next two weeks Deidara avoided Sasori as much as possible, he spent less time in their shared room where Sasori spent most of his time and leaving as soon as he woke up.

Currently he was situated on the only piece of furniture in good condition in the living room, with Kisame beside him.

Kisame was idly flipping though channels as he waited for his Soup Opera show to start. Deidara still found it weird that the shark nin loved the drama show. For him they were easy to figure out what would happen and was constantly repetitive.

"So you want to talk about it?" Kisame said.

Deidara blinked from his thoughts with a hum, turning to glance at the blue skinned male.

In turn Kisame looked away from the television and settled his gaze on the younger teen, "Why you've been jittery." A serious look was plastered on his features; his tone clearly hinting that he was in no mood to deal with denial.

Deidara blinked slowly at the other, mouth slightly open before he closed it, in thought. Sighing, while brushing his bang behind his ear only for it to fall right back over the side of his face causing him to lightly scowl.

Annoyed Deidara crossed his arms, "Un, I'm just anxious to get a mission." He uttered, glancing to the television briefly before returning his gaze back to Kisame. "I've been cooped up in here over two months un."

Kisame silently observed the other for a few moments longer before removing his gaze with a nod. Deidara couldn't tell if the blue haired nin believed him. "I'm sure It'll be any day now. Everyone's bound to be heading out." Kisame stated with a shark like grin before shifting around on the couch to a better position as his show started.

_Great…_ Deidara thought depressingly. That would mean he'd be alone with Sasori. Isolated from the other members, and while they hadn't ever interrupted before, they certainly couldn't do so while he was away from the hideout. A shiver worked its way down his spine and he prayed that nothing horrible would come from Sasori. Threats he could handle… he hoped that's all it would be.

"See a later kid." Kisame's goodbye startled Deidara from his thoughts. Apparently the drama show was over…

Reaching across the couch the blond snagged the remote, perhaps there was something about sculpting on.

Finding nothing Deidara let his head fall back against the couch, eyes closing with a sigh.

~88

"There's nothing to do!" A masked male whined loudly as he headed down the lightly lit corridor.

Zetsu was out scouting, Hidan and Kakuzu were doing something besides arguing in their room, that Tobi didn't even what to think about. Itachi was holed up in his and Kisame's shared room and Kisame was… Tobi wasn't sure where the shark nin had gotten off to. Sasori was working on his puppets as he was always doing and Tobi had no desire what so ever to see the other let alone be anywhere near the red head if he could help it.

Pein was busy doing paper work, Konan… helping probably. If she was the paper work was probably not being down now. And Deidara-Senpai…

Tobi clasped his hands behind his head with a hum. He hadn't seen the blond since breakfast, who had offered to cook. Which was a relief as no one was looking forward to more pancakes.

Just as he went to pass the entrance into the living room the orange masked nin paused. There on the couch was Deidara, his head leaning back against the couch with his eyes closed.

Removing his hands to his sides, Tobi quietly stealthily made his way over to the couch. Once behind the other Tobi took in the blonds features. His long blond hair cascaded over his shoulders, his bang falling to the side from the teens face a tad. Revealing that the blond was without his eye scope, he was dressed in navy blue.

The blond was gorgeous… Tobi quickly shook his head as he rid himself of such thoughts eye refocusing on the others neck. The last thing he needed was to get turned on, he'd then have to take care of it and he'd much rather the blond do it. Which wouldn't happen… not anytime soon anyway.

He blinked slowly.

_What's…?_

Tobi leaned over the blond more to get a look at the teen's neck. His eye narrowed.

"What the hell are you doing dumbass!?" Tobi jolted at the snapping voice. He'd been quite focused on the lightly tanned neck that he hadn't noticed the blonds' eyes open.

Bolting up right Tobi rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Tobi wasn't doing anything Senpai!"

Deidara's eyes narrowed his glare deepening. "Then why were you leaning over me hmm?" The blond growled.

Waving his arms rapidly the masked male stepped back, "Tobi's sorry! Really Senpai! Don't hurt Tobi!" He whined frantically as he saw the blonds' hand move, no doubt going for some clay. "I-if you blow up the living room leader-sama will be displeased!"

Deidara sighed agitatedly letting his arm settle at his side, the dumbass was right. He decided it wasn't worth trying to figure out what the idiot had been doing. The other was clearly not going to just tell him.

Tobi sighed with relief before he swung his legs over the couch and took the vacant seat next to the artist.

"Something wrong Senpai?" Tobi asked softly.

Deidara glanced to the ceiling, with a shake of his head, "Nothing hmm."

The masked male shifted forward slightly, eye focused on the blonds' face, "Then why are you just sitting here?"

Scoffing the blue eyed teen grumbled, "I'm just bored." Deidara bit out, silently willing Tobi to leave him alone.

Tobi brightened behind his mask shouting cheerfully, "Tobi will cheer Senpai up!"

Huffing with annoyance Deidara growled out lowly, "I don't need 'cheering' up un!" Deidara glared while crossing his arms tightly across his slim chest.

"B-but-!" Tobi stuttered, "Tobi just wants to-" He was cut off by a low hiss from the feminine blond.

Deidara's eye twitched, "If you want to 'cheer' me up, then leave!"

Tobi fell silent inwardly depressed. _Why does Senpai always push me away? _When he had first created the mask of Tobi it was so that he could keep an eye on his organization from the inside but also so that he could be close to the blond, get to know him.

Unfortunately Deidara hated the character of Tobi. Tobi was childish, loud, and obnoxious all of the things Tobi felt might draw Deidara, might make the teen interested. But it backfired; apparently Tobi exuded all of the things that Deidara hated.

The little blue eyed blond was far more interested in his partner, Sasori. He had even given the redhead a nickname, Danna.

Even though Deidara was still far from interested in interacting with Tobi, the masked male didn't stop from trying.

Perhaps if he revealed his true self the blond might see him differently. But even if that did happen, it wouldn't change or help much. Tobi was as much a part of himself now that if Deidara couldn't accept Tobi then he couldn't accept all of him. And he really wanted Deidara to accept all of him.

Tobi's musings derailed as he was brought back to the mark on the teen's neck.

Deidara ran a mouthed hand over his face, _why did Tobi try so hard?_ He just didn't understand what did Tobi see in him?

A black gloved hand lightly brushed the bruised neck of the blond causing Deidara to start with surprise and shock. Startled blue eyes turned to the orange swirled mask that was a few inches away from his face. A light flush slowly spread across the embarrassed teen's face at Tobi's closeness.

"What happened Senpai?" Tobi asked gently.

Deidara jolted slightly, recalling the bruises left by Sasori, panic flared as the puppeteers threat passed through his mind. Flinching, Deidara swallowed audibly trying to think up a decent excuse.

Gloved fingers tenderly went over the marks, "Senpai?" Tobi questioned softly, not missing the younger males flinch. His eye narrowing; confirming that it was most likely Sasori who was responsible.

Jerking away from the other, Tobi's hand falling from the teen's neck, Deidara snapped, "It's none of your fucking business!" Quickly standing the blond hurried from the room.

Tobi sighed, eye staring at the entrance to the living room where Deidara had disappeared with anger coursing through his veins, anger not at the blond but at Sasori. Perhaps killing Sasori would be required after all…

~88 (A day later)

True to Kisame's words, everyone was receiving missions and heading out.

Sasori and Deidara found themselves before Pein's brown wooden desk having just gotten done with breakfast. Well Deidara had just had breakfast; Sasori had been working on his puppets.

Pein leaned forward in his chair steeping his fingers together as he eyed the artist duo before him. Closing his eyes briefly before speaking, "You're mission is to go to Suna." Deidara blinked while Sasori's eyes narrowed.

"As you both know, everyone in the Akatsuki is charged with gathering a tailed beast." At both nods from the artists Pein continued. "The one-tail is our next target. Deidara?"

"Hmm?" The blond hummed in response.

"Capturing the one-tail is your quote."

Deidara blinked a few times, his mouth slightly open is surprise, before a grin etched across his features "Really!?" His tone ecstatic. Sasori besides him rolled his eyes at the blonds' antics.

"Are you sure the brat can handle it?" Sasori scoffed, down grading his childish annoying partner. Frankly he could care less that this assignment was given to the blond, he was hoping that the brat would get killed and he'd not have to deal with the kid anymore. Even if he would get Tobi as his new partner, Sasori was sure he could get him killed off easily enough.

Deidara sent a sharp irritated glare at his partner a frown momentarily replacing his smile. He didn't care if Sasori would 'punish' him later. He is certainly capable of capturing the one-tail and by doing so would prove his abilities, (mostly his art) and that he wasn't worthless.

"As I said everyone is responsible for capturing a tailed beast. Sasori yours is the three-tails."

"What!?" Sasori hissed. While Deidara giggled.

"I'd rather take the one-tails! At least we know where it is! The three tails has been missing since-" Sasori silenced at Pein's glare, crossing his arms in anger.

"I'm well aware Sasori. There will be no trades. Deidara is best suited in dealing with the one-tails so that is why he is the one assigned to him."

"Fine." Sasori ground out. "If we're all doing this individually then why do I have to accompany the brat to Suna?"

Sighing deeply, Pein rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration, "Because getting into Suna with the least amount of hassle will be done by using your spy."

"Tch." Sasori hissed angrily, while Deidara looked eager to leave.

"So, hmm do we leave today?" Deidara asked, rocking on his heels, arms crossed and anxious to get started. He'd get to use his art for the first time in over two months in a real fight. Deidara's slightly maniac grin stretched.

Pein turned his attention onto his youngest member, "Yes, you both leave immediately." After answering the eager blond Pein ruffled through his desk drawer producing a scroll. "Here is gathered information on the jinchuuriki of Suna, as well as other helpful information on the village." Pein stated as he offered the scroll to Sasori, who took it with irritation.

"Is that all?" Sasori asked with his usual boredom.

Pein nodded, "You're both dismissed."

As the door shut behind them Deidara gave a side glance to his fuming partner, stating with a grin still present "Wow un, Pein must be in a good mood! He didn't get mad at you for questioning him."

Sasori's head snapped to the side with a fierce glare causing Deidara to jerk back, swallowing hard.

"Prepare for your mission. Make sure you bring extra clay."

"Yeah, yeah." Deidara said with a wave of his right hand, dismissing Sasori's words.

Exactly twenty minutes later both artists were exiting the base in their Akatsuki cloak the jingle hat perched on their heads and Sasori in his traveling puppet, Hiruko as they headed to Suna to capture the one-tail.

~88 (I didn't feel like doing the fight with Gaara – so I skipped doing it. The ending in the fight between Kakashi, Naruto and Deidara is different than the anime which I changed)

Deidara glared hatefully as he avoided that strange jutsu from the copy nin.

After capturing the one-tail in Suna and spending three days sealing it, two groups of Leaf nin attacked the cave. After their trap split up one group, Sasori and Deidara were left with only one team.

Deidara lured the nine-tails jinchuuriki out of the cave so that he could fight it one on one only to have the copy nin follow, irritatingly enough. As the two chased him down, as the blond jinchuuriki was adamant at getting the former one-tail host back, Deidara tried to off Kakashi. He was hardly successful.

Finally the spiky haired blue eyed blond jinchuuriki used a blue ball of chakra to sever the head of his bird, having been focused on dodging the coping nins attacks.

Quickly making another bird and not a moment too soon as the blond jinchuuriki came at him with a punch. Flying back up into the air he activated the body of the bird that had collapsed on the forest floor.

It shot up, tangling around the surprised blond who let out a yell as the clay immobilized him. As the nine-tails jinchuuriki frantically tried to break free Kakashi took his chance, using his eye technique one final time – the Mangekyo sharingan. Successfully hitting its mark or almost.

Deidara gave a small shout as his arm was ripped off him and sucked who knows were. Blood dripping from the severed limb, Deidara quickly sent some chakra to the wound to staunch the bleeding.

Now he stood huffing and heaving, glaring with furious hate at the sharingan in Kakashi's eye. He despised the sharingan, loathed it. It was infuriating that the object of his hate had just torn his arm off. Sweat dripped down his face as he devised his next move. Without his arms he couldn't perform any jutsu, therefore he couldn't fight.

"Best to get out of here then un." Deidara grunted, getting his breathing relatively even. "A shame too…" The blue eyed teen trailed off. He'd detained the nine-tails but had no way of grabbing him now. What a bummer…

Deidara soared higher into the air with one last glance, seeing Kakashi heading over to his clay containing the loud mouth kid. Obviously chasing after him isn't as much as a priority as getting the kid free.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" Naruto yelped, trying to get free only to get farther stuck in the sticky substance. Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration as he shouted, "What is this stuff!?"

"Calm down Naruto." Kakashi murmured as he arrived at his student's side, analyzing the white clay stuck to the blond.

Naruto leveled a furious glare at his teacher, "Calm down!?" The blond screeched, causing Kakashi to give a small wince, "I can't move and that bastard is getting away! And… and…" Naruto froze as his mind supplied him with _why_ they'd been chasing the feminine blond.

Naruto turned frantic eyes to Kakashi, "Sensei! Gaara! Where's Gaara!? Is he alright?"

Kakashi sighed quietly with a shake of his head, turning in the direction of where several of Naruto's shadow clones were emerging. "Well?"

All three clones closed their eyes, expressions remorseful, depressed.

Kakashi closed his silver eye briefly before returning his gaze to the real Naruto, "I'm sorry Naruto. He's gone."

Naruto gapped in disbelief, denial firmly etched on his features. When it became apparent that Kakashi wasn't going to shout out 'Just kidding' Naruto felt despair well up.

He had promised…

Anger struck. Anger at himself for not being fast enough, not strong enough and anger at the Akatsuki. His eyes turned to redden slits and with a burst of orange chakra the white clay encompassing him flew out setting him free. Kakashi held up his arms to shield himself from the powerful burst of chakra.

A thin bubble like coat wrapped around the teens figure and several tails popped up.

~88

Deidara was knocked forward, spiraling through the air from the massive shock wave. Startled he swung his attention behind him once he'd evened out. He blinked rapidly at the sight that greeted him, the spiky blond kid was slowly looking like a miniature nine tails.

"How interesting…" Deidara murmured with a tilt of his head.

He raised a brow as the transformed teen bolted forward with a punch aimed at the copy nin who avoided the devastating blow leaving dust in its wake.

Deidara turned from the spectacle, as much as he'd like to see how the fight ended, it was a good distraction to make his escape.

"Humph." Now to find his arm… Deidara blinked, and the ring.

Every member in the Akatsuki had a ring all worn on a different finger and each with a different meaning. Deidara's meant blue colored in teal and he wore it on his right index finger.

Once far enough away from the Leaf nin Deidara landed and let his bird disappear. He needed to conserve his chakra. Now on foot Deidara headed deeper into the trees in search of his arm.

~88

"Well, what do you know? Looks like Deidara-Senpai is a goner to! There must be body parts scattered all over the place." Despite his bad attempt at a joke, Tobi felt a deep aching pain deep inside his heart as he bent down and picked up Deidara's hand.

_He can't be dead! _He thought frantically. But the hand in his proved that he more than likely was. He ignored the plant man as he came to a stop paces away from him.

He should have trailed the blond but had put faith in the blonds unique abilities. Of course if he _had_ taken off to make sure nothing happened to the teen it would have raised suspicions. And now… now _his _blond was –

"Get your hands off hmm!"

Tobi blinked at the familiar voice his heart skipping a beat with a single thought flowing through his mind, _he's alive!_

Tobi let loose a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding at the younger males words. Standing, the masked nin turned to face the heavily panting blond. His Akatsuki cloak was torn at the arms. Blood dripped from the right arm of the teen who wore an annoyed expression. Despite the bombers battered state, Tobi felt immense relief.

_Deidara is alive! _Tobi thought in pure happiness.

"**Where's the Jinchuuriki?"** Zetsu's black side growled out.

Deidara's eye slowly shifted to the plant male half lidded, "Don't look at me hmm, I did my job." Which was true, his quote was the one-tails; and he'd done that. So what if the Leaf nin got his body?

"Dear, dear Deidara-Senpai you must have had a close shave huh but you're in one piece? …Opps sorry." Tobi stated rather mockingly with his hands resting on his hips. Despite his good mood he felt like getting back at the blond for scaring him like that.

"Tobi even the Buddha loses patience when insulted a third time. One more word and there will be no doubt about the cause of your death!" Deidara ground out.

Tobi gave a small quick chuckle, "You're just going to bomb me to death right?"

Zetsu turned partially in Tobi's direction as his black side spoke **"That was the third one."**

Tobi let out a shout as he was knocked down by an infuriated blond by a kick, and then the artists legs wrapped around his neck, squeezing as he snapped, "Death by suffocation!"

Tobi gave repeated little whines as his hand gripped the teen's ankle and waved his other arm wildly. Behind his mask Tobi couldn't help but grin.

"Alright. Knock it off you two." Zetsu's white voice chimed. "Deidara's arms need to be seen to."

Deidara growled at the plant man but slowly, grudgingly released Tobi who quickly bounded up right, while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Deidara struggled to his feet with sever difficulty but he managed. Being armless wouldn't hamper his abilities…

Caching his breath, Deidara realized something.

"Where's Sasori?" It was odd that he ran into Zetsu and the idiot before Sasori. The puppet master was always quick in dealing with his fights.

Tobi remained silent while Zetsu paused momentarily from his trek towards Deidara's detached arm. **"He chewed off more than he could chew." **The darker side of Zetsu said with a slight chuckle.

Opening his mouth then closing it Deidara scowled "What the hell does that mean un!"

"It must be hard," The white side was cut off, **"Hard? Hah-" **

Deidara snapped, "Answer my question!" The blond shouted, losing his temper. He arms hurt. He was low on chakra; he was in no mood to deal with Zetsu arguing with himself.

Zetsu's yellow eye narrowed on the black side as he growled** "Don't yell at me-" **Once againhe wascut off by his other side. "He's dead."

Deidara blinked, not sure he had heard right, "What?"

"He was killed." **"Good riddance." **The white side quietly rebuked his darker side as he turned to the shocked blond "It's such a shame to lose ones partner, it must be hard losing a fellow artist." He murmured softly.

Tobi inwardly scoffed, he agreed with Zetsu's dark side. He was glad the ex-sand ninja was dead and he was sure most if not all the Akatsuki members would agree. Sasori hadn't been well liked, and if everyone knew what Sasori had been doing to Deidara behind closed doors they'd be furious.

Deidara gapped at the plant male with disbelief.

Sasori was really

…_Dead?_

Denial hit first, Sasori was strong, how could he lose to two females? Surely Zetsu was messing with him, but why would he? His dark side he could understand but Zetsu's white side was the one who declared Sasori to be dead.

Wasn't Sasori going to live forever? Be eternal? Sasori had constantly scoffed at his art which he believed was transient, fleeting. But Sasori had become _his_ art. Deidara had won their art argument.

But now he would have no one to argue with about art…

Should he be sad? Angry? Or happy? Sasori had in the very beginning become his Danna, as time passed; the red head had lost the meaning of that title. He'd respected the others art, though Sasori hadn't returned the favor.

All he wanted was recognition… Even now despite the abuse and harsh words Deidara still wished Sasori had acknowledged his art.

And now… that would never happen.

He wouldn't miss the pain Sasori inflicted on him or the harsh words, a part of him Deidara realized was happy but strangely melancholy.

Sasori had been his fellow artist, his Danna. How could he be dead?

"Senpai you okay?" Tobi voiced softly at the blonds prolonged silence, his tone full of worry. Surely the blond wasn't upset… Sasori had been mistreating him.

The blue eyed teen ignored Tobi, focusing his attention on Zetsu. "He deserved it un. Sasori was arrogant; he was bound to get killed for it sooner or later."

Tobi tilted his head in silent wonder studying the blond's flat look.

Zetsu, deciding it would be best to get going; finished his walk over to Deidara's severed hand and picked it up, inwardly telling himself that he couldn't eat it. Unfortunately.

"We'll meet you both back at the hideout. Tobi be a good boy and help Deidara." The white side said softly ignoring his darker side who was quietly grumbling at not being able to eat Deidara's arm.

Tobi bobbed his head energetically, while pressing a fist to his chest shouting, "Tobi will look after Senpai! Tobi's a good boy!"

Deidara glared angrily, "I don't need any one looking after me un! Especially not Tobi!"

"**Says the guy with no arms."** The black side rudely hissed only to be chastised by his other side as they slowly melted into the ground. Deidara's eyebrow twitched angrily.

"Come on Senpai we should find an Inn and bandage you up." Tobi murmured softly as he approached the mad blond. "Then we can head to the base."

Deidara glared frustrated at the ground for a few moments before closing his eyes and sighing heavily. He did need to get his arms taken care of; one of them had started bleeding. "Fine, un." He huffed out.

"Yay!" Tobi squealed, only to be silenced from a furious glare from the injured teen before vaulting forward and wrapping his arms around the smaller male in a warm embrace from behind. Deidara stilled, shocked before anger swept over his features. He immediately tried to knock the other loose, but without arms however it proved to be fruitless to dislodge the other. "Tobi! Get the fuck off!" Deidara shouted with a murderous look. (Not that Tobi could see it…)

"B-but Senpai! You looked like you needed a hug." The masked male sang cheerily.

Twitching Deidara hissed lowly, "If you don't get off now then I'm going to bomb you to death the minute I'm able!"

Tobi mildly tightened his hold on the blond feeling how tense and rigid the other was before slowly, sadly releasing the teen.

Deidara jerked forward and not wasting any more time continued walking, ignoring the other.

Tobi let the blond take the lead as he followed closely behind watching the other attentively.

The blond was alive. Nothing could hamper his good mood now. He felt even more happiness at the fact that he is going to be the blonds' new partner with Sasori dead. He was beyond filled with joy. To think it'd only taken _six_ years for this day to come…

With his eye trained fixatedly on the injured blond Tobi interlocked his fingers together behind his head and smiled.

~ End Chapter

The conversation between Zetsu, Tobi and Dei – some of it (the conversation) was taken from the English dub. (The Anime)

Posted: 02/24/2012


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: See 1st Chapter

Warnings: See 1st Chapter

Mild usage of Japanese Terms, such as: Chan, Danna, Sama.

There **will** be lemons in future chapters. I will post at the start of the chapter, a notice/warning when there is one.

Since I couldn't do so personally I'm saying it here: Thanks to **Obsessive Nature** for the favs! I appreciate it.

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 5 – New Partner

"Don't do that," Kakuzu said, as Deidara overly stressed his newly attached arms. "The nerves aren't fully attached yet. They need to heal. So no over straining them or using your chakra. They need rest."

"Tch." The ex-rock nin scoffed with an annoyed expression. "You can't be serious! I've been without my art for a week! A week, I'm not waiting any longer now that I have my arms back."

Kakuzu smacked the blond upside the head.

"You ass! What the hell was that for un!" Deidara hissed a hand on the back of his head.

Grunting Kakuzu crossed his arms glaring at the teen, "As if that really hurt. No using your chakra, it was _not_ a suggestion. If you over exert your arms you could damage the nerves and loose mobility. Then you'd be permanently unable to use your arms or your precious art."

Deidara stared wide eyed with dread at the mere thought of never being able to make explosions and seeing his art in action.

Grumbling; "Fine hmm." Deidara conceded.

"Good." Kakuzu uttered, hiding his worry for the teen.

Pein had informed everyone that Sasori had been killed and Deidara was on his way back. But had neglected to mention that the Iwa nin was injured. It had been quite the shock for him when the kid stumbled into his room with his usual blue fish net outfit and missing both his arms. They had been bandaged but already blood had stained them and they were hardly white anymore. (He would later inquire about the Akatsuki cloak though he had a bad feeling that it was damaged, that kind of material was not cheap but bringing it up now would not be ideal)

Zetsu had showed up mere moments later with Deidara's right arm, mumbling something about food before leaving.

He'd never seen the kid in such a bad state in years. There had been one particular incident, though the blond hadn't lost any limbs. It had been a year after Deidara had become a member and do to scheduling conflicts and having to many missions needing to be completed swiftly; Deidara had ended up teaming up with Hidan. The mission had gone sour at the arrival of Orochimaru, a former member who had been Sasori's last partner.

Orochimaru had somehow discovered his replacement and had abducted the fourteen your old. It had taken roughly a month to track the snake bastard down. But they pulled it off and found themselves advancing to easily through Orochimaru's hideout.

Everyone save Pein, Konan, Zetsu and Tobi had been on the retrieval. Hidan had refused to stay behind as it was majorly his fault the kid had been grabbed in the first place. Pein had been furious and if it wasn't for the fact that Pein was in Ame and couldn't leave his duties would have also gone.

They had found Deidara strapped to a lab table bloody and unconscious. The blond had been unfortunate to suffer Orochimaru's sick experiments. Or so it looked like.

Returning to the base had been smooth and Deidara had instantly been looked over. It didn't take long to discover an addition to the blonds' chest mouth, with a few mildly deep injuries (After getting over their shock of finding another one).

From what Kakuzu gathered, should Deidara channel his chakra it would go through a filter (that had been placed inside by Orochimaru) and hit his heart. The chakra would build up then release. It would detonate within a certain range, how far he wasn't sure. But was sure it would destroy the hideout and everyone in it.

Not hard to imagine seeing as Orochimaru had a grudge against the Akatsuki and wanted to get revenge, mostly at Itachi and Sasori.

Pein had quickly demanded it be removed so Kakuzu had transferred the blond to emergency surgery, though successful left Deidara in a coma. At the very least they had foiled Orochimaru's attack.

The kid had been out for three months but pulled through. To this day the members of the Akatsuki have no idea what exactly happened. Deidara refused to talk about it and the only experiment done on him that they were aware had been handled, the blue eyed blond was fine now with no outward or inward damage that they could find. Deidara was alive so the matter was dropped.

From that incident every member had grown a soft spot for the teen. Except for Sasori, who believed the kid should have died for being so pathetic in being captured by a creep like Orochimaru. No one really begrudged Sasori on the subject; he was still sour about Deidara being his new partner.

The Akatsuki looked after the kid, kept an eye on him even if it didn't look like it. So to have the blond showing up after a mission without his arms worried him, to put it easily. It brought back unpleasant feelings. Sure the mission was completed, but if the blond had died the organization would have fallen into a state of sadness.

Things wouldn't have been the same.

Deidara had bounced back relatively quickly and Kakuzu had been impressed as he was sure the other members (Not counting Sasori) were as well by the blond being able to still be so bright and passionate. The kid wasn't letting the crap with Orochimaru mess him up and simple stated he'd kill him someday, with a deep burning flame sparked in his visible blue eye, determination on his face.

Kakuzu sighed heavily he was too old for all this deep thinking shit, to think a group of leaf nin were at fault. Of course Sasori had the worse end of the stick compared to Deidara, he'd been killed. Now the organization was down a member and would need to be filled as soon as possible considering they were actively looking for the tailed beasts now.

Shaking his head Kakuzu headed over to his desk settling heavily into his chair, picking up his newspaper. "Now get out." At Deidara's curious look he added, "Pein wants to see you."

He was sure Pein was aware of things and that Deidara was back. Mission reports were always done after returning but he had a feeling that the blond had come straight here. Knowing that Pein would call a meeting, it didn't make sense to wait.

Deidara blinked confused, "About what hmm?" He was sure Pein knew the gist of things.

Kakuzu paused, glancing back slightly, "Just go." He growled. He doubted the kid would be thrilled to hear that it would mostly be about him getting a new partner. He was no doubt depressed over his Danna's death. Kakuzu knew he would be if it was Hidan, a good thing the silver haired male was immortal.

With a sigh Deidara stood, grumbling about grouchy old men as he left the room.

~88

_Knock, knock._

"Enter." Pein's aloof voice floated through the door.

With a small 'click', the door swung open revealing a blond, blue eyed teen known as Deidara. Shutting the door swiftly the Iwa nin slowly approached Pein's desk. "You wanted to see me, hmm?"

Rinnegan eyes snapped up to the feminine blond, eyes swiftly scanning the teens frame. Noting his arms had been tended to by Kakuzu and his long blond hair was down from his half pony tail. Considering he'd been with Tobi and Deidara lacked arms it made sense. The teen wasn't about to let 'Tobi' touch his hair.

Setting his pen down; Pein steeples his fingers together, "Yes. It's about your new partner."

Deidara blinked, startled.

"So soon?" Surely Pein couldn't have found a replacement already. Finding capable and skilled ninja weren't exactly easy. Not to mention willing shinobi. Not that Pein cared if you wanted to join or not, you didn't get a say. It was just easier if the shinobi was willing, less chances of rebelling or turning traitor.

Pein nodded. He doubted this would go over very well. "He already knows how things run; your first mission will be in three days."

Deidara crossed his arms, scoffing, "Mission?"

Pein's eyes narrowed at the blonds' tone but chose not to comment on it, "Yes for team building. This mission will be so that you both can get a feel for each other."

"And who is my new partner?" Deidara could really care less for his new partner; he'd prefer not to have one. What if they turned out to be like Sasori? He did not want to go through a similar experience. He'd just have to show his new partner that he was no push over.

Pein stared coolly at Deidara for a few moments before sighing, directing his attention to the door behind the blond, "You may come in now."

Deidara resisted the urge to look behind him at his new partner as soft footsteps made their way into the office.

"Meet your new partner." Pein stated leaning back in his chair waiting for the inevitable.

Deidara raised a lone eyebrow at the orange haired male before glancing to the side. His one visible blue eye landed on a bright swirled orange mask.

_Orange…_

Deidara gapped, _Not Tobi! Pein can't be serious!_ His arms fell to his side in shock and surprise.

The dumbass was dressed in the customary Akatsuki cloak; Sasori's former Akatsuki ring was worn on Tobi's thumb. It felt so wrong to see Sasori's purple ring on Tobi.

Tobi titled his head to the side and with a hidden grin shouting shrilly, "Hi Senpai! Can you believe it! I'm a member now!" Deidara twitched, "And I get to be you partner! Isn't that great!"

No… it was **not **great.

Annoyance and anger dominated the blond as he swiveled his eyes back to Pein who was silently observing the scene.

"Why the fuck is it Tobi! You can't be serious un!" Deidara hissed.

"Aw Senpai-" Tobi trailed off at the blonds furious glare.

Pein closed his eyes briefly idly wondering why everyone had to argue about practically everything he said. Wasn't _he _the leader?

"Tobi is the only available ninja we have. He's been Zetsu's subordinate for years, he's dedicated to the organization and he knows how things are run." Pein sated in a monotone voice.

Deidara clenched his fits tightly, turning his knuckles white, "What about skill!? Is that not important anymore hmm?" He snapped out pissed.

Pein rubbed the bridge of his nose, willing his growing headache to go away, before leveling a bored stare at the angry teen. "Skill is important. If you're that worried about Tobi's fighting capabilities then I suggest you train him."

Deidara scoffed, "You're kidding right?"

Before Pein could reply an ecstatic shout from the masked nin broke out, "That'd be so cool Senpai! We could make a schedule-"

Deidara's thin patience snapped and in one swift movement brought up his arm and down on Tobi's head with a '**Smack!'**

"OW!" Tobi's hands instantly went to his head, "That was mean Senpai!" He whined.

Deidara growled in return, "Shut up!"Ignoring the pain his arm was reeling from. Either Tobi's head was harder then he recalled or his arm was indeed still recovering as Kakuzu said.

Deidara leveled his glare at Pein, not caring that he was being disrespectful. Deidara asked angrily, "Why can't he be Zetsu's partner!?"

Instead of reprimanding the blond Pein calmly uttered, "Zetsu doesn't require a partner. You know that." Shaking his head briefly and noticing the blond open his mouth, no doubt to argue some more quickly continued, "Enough! Deidara, Tobi is your partner and that's final."

Deidara wordlessly moved his mouth for a few seconds before closing it, pissed. He knew that no matter what he said wouldn't change Pein's mind.

Pein picked up his pen shifting his focus onto the papers before him, "I expect to see you both in three days to get your mission detail. You're both dismissed."

Furious Deidara turned away from Pein and stomped angrily out of the room, with Tobi right behind him.

~88

Deidara opened the door to his room still pissed. Tobi let out a squeal of joy as he bounded over to his bed the one that formerly belonged to Sasori but was never used; at least not for sleeping.

With a running jump Tobi vaulted onto his bed with a bounce, messing up the blanket.

Deidara closed his eyes in despair. He couldn't believe he had to put up with the dumbass as a partner. It was bad enough before.

"Ne Senpai!?" The new Akatsuki member shouted, now settled at the edge of his new bed.

Deidara grunted in response making his way over to his bed, falling face down; pressing his face into his pillow. Not caring that he was in need of a shower. He just wanted to sleep…

"Let's play a game!" Tobi squealed.

Deidara inwardly face palmed. _The dumbass __**finally **__becomes a member and he wants to __**play a game**_**?** In the past sure he'd asked before but now Tobi was a member. Such things were not appropriate for a member of Akatsuki.

Tobi tilted his head to the side, eye focused on the blond. Deidara remained silent, Tobi pouted. "Please Senpai!"

Deidara round his arms beneath his pillow and pointedly ignored his annoying partner.

"Aw Senpai! You're no fun!" The masked male whined. Not about to be deterred, he swiftly stood from his bed and crossed the scant distance to Deidara's bed.

"SENPAI!?" Tobi shouted shrilly as his gloved hand landed on the blonds shoulder and gave it a firm shake earning an irritated groan. "Please Senpai! Let's do something fun! Tobi knows! We should celebrate! Tobi became a member!"

Deidara jerked away from Tobi's hand and grabbed his pillow and flung it at the annoying idiot. With a light 'smack' the pillow hit Tobi's orange swirled mask before sliding down and falling with a 'thud' unto the floor.

Growling Deidara glared angrily at Tobi, "Go do something by yourself un!"

"B-but Deidara-Senpai!" Tobi whined. "Tobi wants to do something with Senpai!"

Deidara gritted his teeth while bringing up one mouth hand to rub at the side of his forehead, kneading the skin. All this yelling had given him a pounding headache, his arms ached and all he really wanted to do was sleep. But the fucker was being loud and as usual being a pest.

"Well I don't. Go pester someone else! Or I'll blow you up hmm!" He snapped.

Tobi shifted, inching closer to the younger male's bed, "B-but Senpai… What about-"

Deidara's patience snapped and he quickly retrieved several kuni and shot them at the masked nin who gave a shout and ducked covering his head with his arms. "GET OUT!" If Kakuzu hadn't told him not to use his chakra (and he felt since his arms hurt it would not be wise to test it) for went throwing a bomb at the idiot.

Tobi peeked up slowly when he heard silence instead of more weapons coming at him and bolted up, "Tobi thought you said you'd blow Tobi up…?" When Deidara looked ready to do just that Tobi inched back; brining his arms up, "Tobi's sorry Senpai! Please don't make Tobi leave! Tobi will be good promise! Tobi's a good boy."

Deidara eyed Tobi skeptically who was still waving his arms frantically in the air after his pleading, sighing "Fine. Just be quiet un." Deidara uttered. He had a feeling that he was going to regret his decision.

Tobi dropped his arms before clapping them together with an ecstatic "THANK YOU SENPAI!"

Deidara sent a sharp glare at the other, who rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Opps sorry…"

Deidara sighed before laying down while pulling his blanket over his head, his pillow was still on the floor.

Tobi idly scratched at his head as he pounded what to do now that he'd teased his Senpai. Or in this case annoyed and pissed the other off. Shifting his attention from the blond he scanned the room in thought.

His lone eye settled on the closet on his side of the room, a grin lit up his face, "Tobi knows! I'll move Tobi's stuff in!"

Deidara heaved heavily under his blanket in frustration as Tobi zoomed out of the room to gather his things. Clenching his eyes shut, Deidara sighed depressingly, _why did it have to be Tobi?_

~88

Tobi burst back into his shared room with Deidara carrying several boxes, once inside he used his foot to shut the door. Unloading his arms of the boxes onto his bed Tobi zipped over to his closet and yanked it open with zeal.

Inside the closet was organized and neat with Sasori's things. Bending down Tobi idly shifted through several items with a hum.

Deidara burrowed more under his blanket, gritting his teeth in irritation at the noise. If only he could use his chakra….

Tobi came to a box labeled 'poisons' and slowly lifted the box up opening it to find rows of vials. Each one of them were labeled but they were all poisons the box contained no antidotes. Closing the box Tobi deemed that the poisons could be used, before setting them safely out of the way.

The masked male then moved on to one of the many boxes in the rather spacious yet kind of small closet. Lifting up the lids Tobi peered in, "Cool!"

Not wasting any more time Tobi rummaged through the contents with interest. "Senpai!" Tobi shouted in excitement. Not waiting for a response hurried on, "Look! Puppets! So cool."

Sasori's puppets weren't ordinary; they weren't created by using just plain wood but that of humans. Sasori would kill his opponent then turn them into his human puppet. A skill that only Sasori possessed but was also very illegal and labeled forbidden. It was interesting to see what person Sasori turned, even though Tobi wouldn't be able to see what the puppets abilities are. Human puppets were capable of using their attacks as when they had been alive.

"Senpai! Look!" Tobi shouted again, still rummaging through the box.

Deidara shot up in bed pissed, "Argh shut up!" Not even a full day and Deidara was already wishing that Sasori hadn't been killed. While being abused wasn't fun having Tobi as a roommate and partner was proving to be beyond aggravating.

Tobi stilled in his movements, tilting his head around to glance at the blond's furious expression. It would seem he'd pushed just a tad too much… But dang did Deidara look spectacular when angry.

Turning his attention back to the box Tobi closed it before stacking another one on top. Lifting the boxes Tobi stood, "Tobi's going to go see Kakuzu. Maybe he can sell these!" The masked nin opened the door with a cheery shout, "Bye Senpai!" and left the room before Deidara could decide to maim him.

Deidara collapsed back onto his bed with a huff.

_Sell…_

Sasori's puppets?

Deidara closed his eyes, what did he care?

~88

"Not in the kitchen!" Kakuzu screeched.

Konan sighed lightly before taking a sip of her coffee, enjoying the smell. Kisame ignored the shout and continued making pancakes. Itachi gave a small 'hn' from across from Konan at the kitchen table waiting for his batch of pancakes.

Hidan lifted his head up briefly from the table to glare at his greedy partner before planting his face back onto the table with a scoff.

Kakuzu stormed in and over to his bleeding partner at one end of the table. "How many times do I have to say it? You can't bleed in the kitchen!"

"Or in the living room…" Konan muttered quietly. It wasn't that she was sticking up for Hidan it was just that after all these years, one would think that Kakuzu would get that no matter what he said or yelled wouldn't prevent Hidan from dragging blood everywhere.

"Fuck off!" Hidan grumped out lowly. He was tired and wanted some sleep. But he was also hungry…

Before Kakuzu could retort and no doubt cause a long filled with cussing argument Kisame strolled up and placed one plate before Itachi and the other in front of Konan. "Seriously guys? Must you both do this every single day?"

Kakuzu growled but took his seat and opened his paper, ignoring everything else.

Konan turned to Itachi who as usual was very quiet, "So do you and Kisame have a mission today?" Just because she was Pein's partner didn't mean she was aware of _everything._

Itachi swallowed before politely replaying, "No."

"Oh?" Konan paused for a moment to savor a bit of syrupy pancakes, "What are your plans then? You guys doing anything special?"

"Hn." Itachi murmured with closed eyes.

Konan glared, "Would it kill you to use words once in a while?"

"Perhaps." Itachi obliged, answering the blue haired female.

"Isn't that sweet. You guys going to hold hands and be all cute to?" Hidan cooed with sarcasm.

'Smack!'

"OW! Fuck, Kakuzu! I'll kill you!" Hidan shouted.

Konan closed her eyes and sighed, it was the same thing every day. Lots of arguing…

After breakfast everyone save Konan and Itachi migrated to the living room.

Kisame sighed as he leaned back against the couch, Hidan and Kakuzu were arguing over the remote as neither could agree on what to watch. Kakuzu wanted to watch the stock channel and Hidan wanted to watch a gruesome movie.

A shark like grin etched across Kisame's blue face, right now watching the other two fight was more entertaining than his fish program.

Kisame looked up as Deidara staggered in with a hand to his head. "Morning Dei-chan."

The feminine teen took a seat next to the shark like nin with a grunt.

Kisame leaned slightly closer to peer at the kids face, "Headache?"

Deidara sent a sharp irritated glare at the mist nin. "No I'm just tired hmm." Sarcasm dripping from his tone.

"Tch." Kisame leaned back, crossing his arms. "No need to be like that."

Before Deidara could reply a loud obnoxious voice cut in, "Oi blondie! I heard that pumpkin head is your fucking new partner! Sucks to be you!"

Deidara glared furiously at the immortal, "Shut up!"

Hidan raised a silver eyebrow, "What? That's fucking it? Such a comeback!" He scoffed.

Kisame chuckled while Deidara clenched his fists, looking about ready to attack the other.

'Smack!'

"OW! Fuck Kakuzu, what the hell's your problem!" Hidan shifted attention to his green eyed partner with a glare.

Kakuzu glared right back, "You're my problem." He growled. When Hidan continued to glare and looked ready to start a rant he continued, "Can't you show even a _little_ empathy today?"

Hidan blinked, startled before furrowing his brow, "And why the fuck should I?"

Sighing Kakuzu grumbled, "As elegant as ever."

Hidan gave the other the 'finger' before grabbing the remote that had been forgotten at the blonds' arrival.

Kisame shook his head before surveying the blue eyed teen. He looked alright, mildly tired looking but fine otherwise. Everyone had heard by now about Sasori and his replacement as well and Deidara losing his arms. He figured the teen would be depressed and stay holed up in his room. He'd just lost Sasori. And though they didn't have a relationship (though everyone figured they'd get together soon) they were both artists.

If he had lost Itachi he'd certainly be depressed…

"You doing alright Dei-chan?"

"Hmm?" The Iwa nin hummed, blinking slowly having calmed down from Hidan's mocking. Turning to the shark nin with a half lidded stare uttered, "Fine."

Not too sure to take the blonds word for it, Kisame let it go… for now. "So how are things going with Tobi so far?"

He raised an eyebrow at the blonds grimace, "That bad?"

Deidara gritted his teeth before seething, "Barely five minutes of sharing a room and he's already annoyed me. He wouldn't shut up un! I've got this blasted headache that won't go away and I got it yesterday! And we haven't even gone on a mission yet hmm!"

"Try ignoring him. Or you know you could_ try_ to get along with him." Kisame chuckled at the blonds 'you've got to be kidding look.'

Deidara groaned, holding his head with one painted hand, "Why did _I_ get stuck with Tobi?" He lamented.

Kisame shrugged, "Well I bet Tobi's thrilled. He's fond of you, has been since the day you both met."

"Lucky him un." Deidara grumped. Not being serious.

"Seriously, maybe you should give Tobi a chance." Kisame grinned at the blonds disbelieving look. "He's always trying to get to know you, now that you're both partners, why not give it a go?"

Deidara closed his eyes gritting his teeth, "Whose side are you on!?"

"Yours of course." Kisame sang, before getting serious, "Really Deidara. It might be just what you need."

Deidara hissed, "And what do I need!?" Though he was mildly surprised at the full use of his name.

Kisame sighed deciding to change the subject, "So when's your guys first mission?" So not much of a change…

Deidara glared at Kisame for a few moments, debating if it was worth it or not to push the other into answering him before deeming it not worth the effort, "In three days."

Kisame gave a nod, "What kind of mission? Though he was sure that Deidara didn't know yet, Pein tended not to say much of anything till the briefing.

Here Deidara groaned again, not even wanting to think about it, "It's a team building thing…" He grunted in distaste.

Kisame laughed. "Fun."

"I can't wait to hear how _that_ goes." Hidan crowed.

Kakuzu sighed, they had been partially listening to Deidara's and Kisame's conversation and to the movie Hidan had pulled up on the television.

Deidara stood, fed up with Hidan and none too pleased with his conversation with Kisame planning on leaving only to be interrupted in the form of a black blur with an orange mask accompany a shout, "SENPAI!"

Already pissed Deidara glared at his irritating partner, in no mood to put up with him while ignoring the quiet murmuring from Kakuzu about the noise.

Tobi shifted slightly, his head tilted in the Iwa nins direction, "Ne Senpai, I made soup!" He sounded overly proud of such a simple task.

"I'm not hungry, un." Deidara muttered. He walked around the couch, brushing past the annoying orange masked nin and left the room with a huff.

Tobi pelted over to the door frame and peered out while shouting, "B-but Senpai! You haven't eaten-"

"Shut up! Hmm." Deidara snapped his anger boiling, he was 'this' close to saying to hell with everything and blowing the dumbass up… and Hidan to. After making sure that the idiot wasn't following him he quickly made his way to his room.

~88

Tobi sighed in distress while crossing his arms. He made his way over to the couch and slumped on it with another sigh.

Kisame glanced at the masked male with a light frown, "What's wrong?"

Tobi lifted his head up, angling his head in the others direction, "Senpai isn't eating…"

"He's been skipping out on meals lately but he's still eating. That's better than nothing." Kisame said trying to give the upset male some comfort.

Tobi shook his head frantically, waving his arms as if that helped emphasize his words, "No! Senpai hasn't eaten anything since he lost his arms! He wouldn't let Tobi feed him and he hasn't eaten since Kakuzu repaired his arms!" Tobi all but sobbed in worry.

"Oh." Was all Kisame could say to that. He hadn't realized it was that bad.

"The fucker's probably depressed about puppet fucker." Hidan scoffed.

Kisame sighed; sometimes he really wished that Hidan could lay off the cuss words. But cussing was like a part of him. He wouldn't be Hidan if he wasn't spouting profanities and crap about his religion.

Tobi turned in the zealot's direction and uttered with a hint of hope in his tone, "Really?"

Hidan nodded, quite sure. Kisame grinned, "If that's the case, the kid will probably be over it soon enough and start eating again."

"Idiots." Kakuzu snapped.

Hidan raised a threatening hand while Kisame glared and Tobi giggled.

Not waiting for any of them to reply Kakuzu continued, "If Deidara wasn't eating because he was depressed over Sasori then what about when he was occasionally skipping meals?"

Kisame blinked, realizing he'd forgotten that so easily…

Hidan rolled his violet eyes while gripping his Jashin necklace that hung around his neck, "Fuckers right."

Tobi slumped; he of course hadn't thought that Deidara forgoing meals was because he was depressed over Sasori. Not with all the abuse and such Sasori put him through. Perhaps it was because he was pissed at having him as his new partner. He'd find that more likely if Deidara hadn't been forgoing food since he'd patched his arms up at the Inn.

His train of thought was derailed when a hand clamped down on his shoulder startling him. He turned to see Kisame.

"I'm sure it's just a phase. He'll be eating again soon." The mist nin stated. And if Deidara didn't then they'd pester the hell out of him till he did eat. Or force food down his throat.

Tobi grinned even though no one could see it. Kisame removed his hand and leaned back against the couch to watch the ending of Hidan's movie.

~ End Chapter

Posted: 02/28/2012


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: See 1st Chapter

Warnings: See 1st Chapter

Mild usage of Japanese Terms, such as: Chan, Danna, Sama.

Note – Deidara will **not die** in this fic.

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 6 – First Mission

Stupid grass… stupid trees… There was so _much_ of it, and it was irritating! Deidara scowled as he walked through knee length grass, Tobi a ways behind him complaining about being tired and wanting to take a break. Deidara was promptly ignoring the other; they'd already taken _several_ breaks and put them behind schedule.

Besides Tobi had to get use to long traveling as that was usually a given for every mission. Of course Tobi had done scouting with Zetsu but that didn't necessarily mean lots of traveling…

"Are we there yet Senpai?"

Eyebrow twitching Deidara forcefully reframed from throwing a bomb at the idiot. "Does it _look_ like it?" That was the fifth time in five minutes the dumbass had asked. He had a killer headache that wouldn't and couldn't go away since Tobi was constantly _talking_ and asking repetitive questions.

Why…?

Why did he have to get stuck with Tobi? Deidara furrowed his brow while crossing his arms in irritation, _'How on earth had Zetsu put up with the idiot?'_

Shaking his head Deidara refocused on the grassy path before him. At least they were in the Land of Grass. Now all they had to do was find a remote, hidden; relatively small but not overly so village and meet up with their clients.

Coming to a stop Deidara scanned the area, _'The Kannabi Bridge should be near…'_ He thought. Once they crossed that the village should just be a few hurdles over.

Tobi pulled to a stop besides the blond, head tilted in silent question. Deidara completely ignored the other and started forward, eye peeled for the bright red bridge.

Tobi sighed lowly before bounding forward with a shout, "Senpai! Don't leave Tobi!"

Deidara heaved heavily and idly wondered if he should just blow the dumbass up. It _was _the first mission; it was allowed.

But then again…

Tobi was only his partner due to lack of not having someone available beside the former subordinate. Pein would no doubt be displeased with him if Tobi died.

After walking in the dense grass for over an hour Deidara growled he was thoroughly fed up. He slid his hand inside his Akatsuki cloak and reached with a mouthed hand into his clay bag. Swallowing a lump of clay, his hand chewed before spitting out a bird. Tossing it, the azure eyed teen made the customary symbol and with a 'poof' his bird expanded.

Tobi gazed at the 'alive' looking bird in fascination. He often didn't get to see the blonds' creations in person nor this close up.

Grinning Deidara hopped onto his bird, but before he could take off Tobi squealed, waving his arms frantically, "What about Tobi Senpai!?"

Deidara barely glanced at his partner as he scoffed, "Walk for all I care hmm!" Before shooting into the sky leaving behind a pouting masked nin.

He would no doubt have better luck at finding the village from the air. Brushing the fringe from the side of his face Deidara used his scope and scanned the area below.

After a few short minutes a blindingly slightly maniac grin stretched across his face. _'Found it.'_

Deidara set down in front of the village brown gates, his bird 'poofing' out of existence. Deidara titled his head back slightly as he scanned the rather elegant, tall gate.

"Senpai!"

Deidara didn't even bother to turn as his dumbass partner skidded to a stop paces behind him, panting unevenly. "You're so mean!" He whined.

"Humph." Deidara uttered not the slightest bit interested in what Tobi was saying.

"Who goes there?" A voice from atop the ledge of the village shouted down at the pair.

Deidara raised a lone brow as Tobi bounced excitedly, waving an arm at the stranger, shouting "Tobi and Senpai!"

Deidara visibly twitched, his head snapping back to glare at his idiotic partner.

The guard also twitched as he leveled a glare at the two, "What is your purpose in this village?"

Tobi scratched the back of his head ponderingly, "Uh…"

Deidara closed his eye and slowly counted to five, willing himself to calm down and not send a bomb or kuni at his dense partner.

Once calm he opened his eye and settled his gaze on the guard, "We have a contract with a resident of your village!" Deidara made sure to squash his speech impediment. He may not be wildly known but he was sure that anyone who did know of him would keep an eye out for his speech. However if he slipped up he could always kill everyone…

The guard studied the two with suspicion clear on his features. Their outfits were eye catching the straw hats hid most of their faces… Sighing he turned from the two and ordered, "Open the gate."

"Yes sir!" Another guard replied.

Returning his attention to the strangely dressed pair he warned, "You better not cause any trouble."

The smaller of the two tipped his head as the pair entered through the gate and into the village in the Land of Grass.

Once a little ways from the gate; Deidara surveyed the area with mild interest; both stuffing their hats away. Tobi hummed besides him before bursting out with a "Cool!"

There was nothing _cool_ about it… this village looked much like any other. Houses, shops, people… Deidara sighed before taking out there mission scroll. Quickly scanning it, they had to find someone by the name of Takumi Sato.

"So where do we start Senpai?" Tobi asked leaning closer as he peered at the scroll in the blond's hands.

"Un…" Deidara uttered.

Tobi straightened as he pointed excitedly to the west as he shouted loudly; receiving glares from the surrounding people, "Let's try that way!"

Deidara eyed the gestured direction with a raised brow before shrugging.

With a squeal Tobi latched onto Deidara's wrist and tugged him down the street at a relatively fast pace; making comments about things as they passed.

Deidara growled angrily and tried to yank his arm free but didn't succeed. "Tobi!" Deidara couldn't believe how strong Tobi is…

Tobi chuckled at the blonds' furious tone but didn't release his grip. His Senpai was so cute…

Finally after an hour of searching and asking for directions the two missing nin found themselves in front of a small building with intricate designs despite it being rather run down looking.

"Let's go in!" Tobi shouted pulling along a pissed blond. They had received several compliments about 'how adorable the couple looked' (Even though Tobi wore a mask, once he spoke people thought him to be really polite and cute) and such and if Tobi hadn't kept hold of his hand (which didn't help their situation regarding the couple thing) Deidara would have blown all of them up.

It was bad enough that people were assuming that Tobi and he were dating but to mistake him for a freaking female was pushing it. He was **not** a girl! He couldn't believe that after all these years people were still mistaking him for being female.

Deidara's thoughts came to an abrupt stop as a voice greeted them upon entering, "Good day. What is your business?"

A young man with light brown hair and equally brown eyes murmured politely, he wore an elegant suit with white gloves.

Tobi tilted his head while waving an arm, "Hi! Tobi's nice to meet you."

Deidara's eye twitched and he quickly 'smacked' the black haired male in the head with his free arm.

"OW!" Tobi whined as he dropped Deidara's hand and clamped them both to his head.

Ignoring Tobi Deidara turned to the dubious brown haired male, "We have business with Takumi Sato." 

At the mention of his boss the greeter's eyes widen and he stared at them skeptically, "Really?"

Tobi nodded enthusiastically while Deidara voiced his reply with an irritated glare, "Yes."

Knowing he'd be chewed off if Mr. Sato had no dealings with these two, the brown haired male sighed inwardly and turned, "Follow me." They knew his bosses name so while not one hundred percent sure he was pretty positive that they did have business with Mr. Sato. And considering how the two were dressed it was safe to assume they were travelers.

Tobi bounded after their guide with a spring in his step while Deidara trudged grumpily behind.

_Knock Knock_

"Sir?" The un-named greeter in a suit called through a rugged looking door.

Upon the words 'enter' the brown haired male opened the door and gestured for Deidara and Tobi to enter. After the Akatsuki pair slid inside, their guide spoke, "These two ninja wish to speak with you."

The room was dark the only light source coming from a lamp near the desk where a thin man with shoulder length black hair and dark onyx eyes sat. From what was visible he wore very elegant clothing, with several expensive looking rings on his hands.

Taking note of the outfit worn by the pair he gestured for the ninja's to take a seat while he dismissed his door man.

Tobi skidded the scant space to his seat while Deidara followed slowly, taking a seat his sense's on high alert.

Mr. Sato eyed the pair blankly, "You're from the Akatsuki?" He sounded dubious, not surprising considering the mask Tobi wore and his childish annoying attitude (Not that he was aware of that) and Deidara's feminine look and thin frame.

Tobi rapidly nodded as Deidara glared snapping, "Yes. What exactly is the mission?" Pein had not much info to go on but since they would be receiving a large sum of money upon success he didn't care and figured that it would be a suitable teambuilding mission.

Mr. Sato's eyes narrowed infuriated at the blonds tone but quickly calmed, after all these two would be doing him a big service. He had no doubts that a member of the Akatsuki would not fail in such a rather simple mission.

Leaning back the shoulder length male began speaking, "To kill the daughter of feudal Lord Masao Yamada, her name is Emi Yamada. Mr. Yamada owes us money and debt but has gotten arrogant and is putting a dent in my group. His daughter is his most precious living possession. Kill her and leave her body for him to find along with a message."

Deidara stared blankly at Mr. Sato for a few moments; he wanted to kill someone over something so stupid? Inwardly shaking his head Deidara scrapped the thought. He didn't really care, a mission was a mission.

"The message?"

Deidara blinked shifting his attention to his annoying partner in mild surprise. Tobi was sitting quite still, his sole attention on Mr. Sato as far as Deidara could tell. He couldn't recall the last time Tobi was this still and **not** being loud and obnoxious.

Mr. Sato focused on the orange masked nin for a moment before shifting through his drawer and pulling out a sealed scroll. "Only Mr. Yamada is to read it."

Nodding Tobi accepted the scroll and stowed it away in his cloak. Deidara would have taken it, mostly to prevent the raven nin from losing it but this _was _Tobi's mission. He was only to aide.

"Is that all?" Deidara asked, anxious to get this mission over with.

"Yes. You will receive your money _after _you kill the girl." Mr. Sato coolly uttered a hint of deceit in his eyes.

Deidara's eye narrowed, "Half now."

A sharp glare from Mr. Sato was his answer to the blonds' words.

Glaring in turn Deidara sharply voiced, with a venomous look, "You can't possibly think we'd just take your word for it? If you want this mission done exactly as you want then half now." Deidara all but growled to the arrogant male.

Tobi shifted slightly, his focus on the distrustful man as Deidara handled things. Even if Sato didn't give them half now they'd just take the money after even if they had to kill Sato and everyone here.

Mr. Sato glared angrily at the feminine blond before coming up with a plan. He could take the money back when the two returned with proof that Emi Yamada was dead.

"Very well." Standing he went over to a picture on the wall, shifting it to the side he entered the correct numbers and pulled out half of the money he stated he'd give them that is listed in the mission scroll that Deidara carried.

Re-sitting he handed the blue eyed Akatsuki the small sum of money. Deidara quickly opened the bag, making sure it _had _money before closing it had stowing it away in his cloak.

"Take a picture," Mr. Sato said holding out an instant camera, "Of Emi Yamada as proof."

Deidara grabbed the camera as he stood. "Where can we find Mr. Yamada?" Their mission was the girl but finding where the Feudal Lord lived would be easier, and his daughter would be at the same house.

"Just a little ways outside the village. He often comes here to boost his image. And has a house (more like a small palace) in the village." Mr. Sato murmured leaning back in his comfy chair. "Emi Yamada is to be dead within a week."

Deidara couldn't hold the scoff that escaped his mouth at the last of Sato's words. It certainly wouldn't take them a week to kill _some_ girl who wasn't even a ninja. Mr. Yamada would more than likely have guards but probably not ninja.

Why would he?

Mr. Yamada had no reason to suspect that someone would try to kill his daughter. The most he'd bother to have as all Feudal lords would, would be skilled guards.

Instead of telling their deceiving client that they wouldn't nor needed a week, Deidara titled his head in a nod and made for the door, Tobi following the blond with a bounce.

Mr. Sato twitched with visible anger at being so causally dismissed but held himself in check. These ninja would be saving him the trouble of getting his hands dirty, so best not to tick them off. A sick grin etched across his face; soon he'd have his revenge.

As soon as the pair exited the building Tobi squealed, his arms shooting up to the sky, at Deidara's twitch of anger the masked nin answered, "Our first mission together Senpai! Aren't you excited?" Not waiting for the teen to reply continued, "Tobi is! Tobi's going to ace it! Tobi's going to prove Tobi's better then Sasori! You'll s-"

'Smack!'

"OW!" Tobi paused in his walking down the street towards the exit of the village with his hands clasped to the back of his head where the blue eyed teen had hit. With a sniff the orange wearing masked male whined, "That was mean Senpai."

"Shut up hmm." Deidara glared at the other for good measure even though he knew that roughly in a minute or two Tobi would be chattering and being annoying again anyway. And he _really_ didn't want to think about Sasori.

Deidara really doubted Tobi could ever prove to be better than Sasori. Certainly not from this mission: killing a none shinobi female was hardly hard or dangerous. In fact he was expecting Tobi to make a mess of things.

But even if that did occur the most important thing was for Tobi to kill the girl. If he couldn't do that then he had no business being a member of the Akatsuki.

Tobi tilted his head back so he could take in the sheer size of the palace. It was quite elegant, almost impressive looking; he however had seen more incredible, interesting buildings.

"This must be the place." Deidara hummed.

They had left the village behind traveled a few 'hurdles' as Sato had said and low and be hold a giant elegant building popped into view.

It was really something, for an individual to have so much money while meaningless strife lay around the world.

Deidara brushed the fringe from his face and gave the area a quick scan with his eye scope. Nothing. He didn't see anyone. No ninja's or guards. More than likely the guards were inside. Strange though… that there was no one outside; at least in the front of the palace, he highly doubted they were guarding just the back…

"Ne… Senpai? What's the plan?" Tobi asked overexcitement audible in his voice.

"What do you mean 'what's the plan'?" Deidara snapped, clearly irritated. Glaring at his dense partner he continued, "We have to kill the girl." His tone clearly saying, 'how could you have _possibly_ forgotten'?

Tobi jerked back a little, his arms shooting up in a vain attempt to appease the blond, "Tobi just meant…" Tobi trailed off nervously at Deidara's pissed look.

Scratching the back of his head Tobi turned towards the building, eyeing the blue color that made up the roof.

Deidara scowled at his dumbass partner willing down his irritation as he too turned to the palace. He shouldn't expect much from Tobi… Deidara groaned inwardly, while crossing his arms. Again the question of _why _did he have to get stuck with Tobi flittered through his mind.

Sighing Deidara focused on the situation at hand, thinking about things that wouldn't obviously change was pointless and time wasting.

"Well…" Deidara spoke up, quickly gaining Tobi's attention. "We could get invited it. Doubtful that our target will answer but we could play it off as friends of hers…" Deidara paused as he rethought the term 'friends', how likely was it that it would be believed for Ms Yamada to have 'friends'?

Dismissing the thought, Deidara continued, "If we get in then the girl will show up (assuming she's home) and then you kill her."

Tobi jolted, "Tobi!?"

Deidara raised an eyebrow, staring plainly at the other who had begun waving his arms and looked like he _might_ bolt in the opposite direction.

"Why can't you do it Senpai? I thought you'd… blow her up with your art?" Tobi said mildly frantic.

"Idiot. She needs to be discernible. And she's not artistic, it'd be a waste." Deidara scoffed. Not saying that he didn't blow people or buildings up if they weren't artistic but this civilian didn't _deserve_ to go out artistically. Besides this was Tobi's mission if he couldn't kill someone then he was going to make sure Pein gave him a new partner.

Killing was a ninja's way of life and it was demanded in the Akatsuki. If you couldn't kill then you were of no use.

"B-but…" Tobi stuttered, lowering his arms to his sides.

Deidara gestured to the camera he held, "I'll take the picture. You kill her and leave the message."

Tobi stared silently at Deidara for a fraction of a second before his shoulders dropped. Looking for all the world that he was mourning at having to kill someone. Then in an instant straightened and proclaimed, "Tobi will do it! Because Tobi's a good boy!"

Deidara inwardly groaned at the constantly used term but nodded.

"Ne Senpai?"

Deidara stopped his assent forward to glance at the other who stood stationary a few paces behind him, "Hmm?"

"What if we don't get invited in?" Toni asked, sounding uncertain.

Deidara continued forward towards the tall elegant wooden brown door of the palace while saying over his shoulder, "Then we charge in un and search the place. If she's not there then will go back to the village."

"Okay!" Tobi shouted skipping forward after the younger male.

They reached the door and Tobi stepped past the blond and knocked on the door. After a few scant minutes the door opened revealing a woman with long black hair and dressed in a plain kimono. Her eyes a grayish color, a polite smile fixated to her face as she spoke, "Can I help you?"

Tobi nodded energetically only to be beat in replying by Deidara, "Yes. Were friends of Emi Yamada, is she home? We were told to meet her."

Deidara asked, his tone kind of friendly and his face rather neutral, making sure to leave off his speech impediment. Thankfully Tobi remained silent and didn't botch anything… yet.

The women blinked obviously surprised and she frowned momentarily before the smile was instantly back in place.

Deidara sincerely hoped this wasn't the girl, Sato hadn't given them a picture and he'd come to the conclusion he probably didn't have one and it wasn't like they couldn't ask around. However even if this was her, giving it more thought; that in fact made things easier.

But if the girl had gotten tipped off in any way, this women could say 'yes' and they could end up killing the wrong person. Not that that would be the problem; Sato hadn't said they were confined to only killing Emi Yamada.

It would make it harder to find the real one when they didn't know what she looked like.

Deidara reframed from asking 'Are you alright?' That would be polite and as 'friends' of the girl it would be expected to be concerned about the staff. At least Deidara thought so.

The women nodded, and neither ex-nin was sure what she was saying yes to.

She stepped back, "Excuse me. I was a bit startled is all." She opened the door wider and gestured for them to come in, she neglected to mention 'why' she was startled but neither Deidara nor Tobi cared and didn't bother to ask why as they entered.

"Please come in." Once the pair was inside the door was shut, smile still present stated, "Please wait here I'll go and get Ms Yamada."

Before either could even start to reply the black haired women was already leaving the spacious, elegant and large room.

"Wow Senpai! Look as this room! It's so big! And this is just the first room, imagine all the ot-"

"Tobi shut up hmm!" Deidara snapped annoyed. While he did agree with how big the room was he could care less about anything else. So what if there were expensive things and furnishings? It'd look more fantastic on fire.

Tobi titled his head, eye fixed on the temperamental blond with his hands on his hips, "B-but Senpai-"

"Quiet!" Deidara spat whipping around from looking at the doorway where the women had disappeared through to glare angrily at his obnoxious partner. "Can't you be quiet for more than a few minutes un!"

"Of course Tobi can! Tobi's a good boy!"

Deidara, if possible glared harder, "Then why don't you do so!?" He was fed up with the constant talking, the random questions… he was fed up with Tobi period!

Tobi was saved from replying as the women who answered the door returned with a rather young female with dark brown hair with light brown orbs. She was wearing a vibrant kimono that had very detailed flower patterns.

Deidara turned at their entrance, "Emi?" He kept his tone neutral, hoping he sounded like he was asking 'if something was wrong' or along those lines and not as if he was asking if this was Emi.

The girl blinked startled. She had never seen these two in her entire life! And they didn't look like they were residents from the village, yet they knew her name…

The women in the plain kimono looked puzzled at the other female's reaction, "Are they not friends of yours?" She questioned softly. It was not permitted to ask questions. But Emi usually didn't mind.

Deidara couldn't hide his smirk, his unanswered question and been answered.

Tobi shuffled forward gaining attention instantly from the two females. "Hi! Tobi is Tobi!" He shouted pointing at himself as he drew into the brown haired girl's personal space. An often occurrence with Tobi, he had no regard for other people's personal space especially Deidara's.

The girl startled back shocked. Considering who her father is, for someone to invader her space as such was a serious offense! Emi quickly skipped that thought, finding it odd that such a tall man had such a childish tone.

By now the women with black hair had realized that Emi didn't know these two and the fact that the pair had said they were friends which was a lie caused a bout of panic to flare. Unauthorized people were not permitted into the palace much less in contact with Ms Yamada!

Just as she opened her mouth in an attempt to shuffle the pair out the masked nin, who was still invading Emi's personal space quickly flipped out a kuni. Her mouth dropped open, yet no words left as Emi stumbled back, eyes wide at the lethal weapon in the black gloved hand.

Before Emi could get out of range Tobi struck, his arm whipping through the air a distinct slicing sound followed before blood sprayed.

Emi stood deathly still, eyes wide with stunned horror before her body collapsed, she was dead before she hit the ground.

Deidara approached eyeing the corpse, noting that Tobi practically tore the girls head off. He lifted the camera up and pressed the little red button, a flash then Sato's proof was resting in Deidara's mouthed hand.

"How was that Senpai?" Tobi titled his head from the body his tone hopeful, "Was Tobi a good boy?"

Deidara twitched but chose to ignore the idiot's questions, vaguely noting the black haired female had collapsed on her knees her hands pressed over her mouth with a look of horror and fear on her face. "Hurry up and leave the message so we can go." _I can't believe the idiot didn't mess this up…_

Tobi saluted much to Deidara's disgust and the masked nin ruffled through his cloak and hastily placed the message onto the girl's body. Not sparing the other female a glance sped off after the blond who had already made his way out side. "Wait for me Senpai!"

~88

Mr. Sato stared down at the picture that had just been slapped down on his desk by the feminine looking blond from the Akatsuki.

It was indeed Emi Yamada. A delighted grin stretched across his face. What he wouldn't give to see Masao Yamada's face upon seeing his daughter dead! A well, he was fine with that…

He leaned back in his overly comfy chair, "I had no doubts." He murmured.

The blond just stared neutrally while his partner stood a few paces behind him, arms crossed. Sato found it disconcerting that he couldn't see the raven's face.

"The money?" Deidara questioned, bringing Sato's attention back to the present.

"Ah yes, the money." He nodded as if agreeing.

Tobi lowered his arms as Deidara shifted then one person on opposite sides of the room bolted from the cover of the shadows and charged the Akatsuki pair.

"S-Senpai! Tobi shouted nervously sounding mildly scared. He jerked back, out of the way, knowing what would happen next.

Deidara flung his arms up in different directions and quickly made a seal, a following 'explosion' sounded as his clay birds detonated as it connected with the startled males. What was left of their bodies collapsed to the ground, Deidara had held back, after all he didn't want to bring the building down on them.

Settling his searing gaze on the petrified criminal Deidara growled, his hand going into his clay pouch threatingly. He had figured the man would pull something like this.

Sato jerked up from his chair, sweat dripping down his face, bringing his arms up in a gesture of peace, "R-right t-the money." He stuttered as he whipped around and retrieved the rest of their payment.

Once the money was safely tucked away Deidara smiled manically, "Nice doing business with you hmm." Spinning around Deidara followed after Tobi but just as he went to leave smirked at the others terrified expression and made his seal. With a small 'boom' the man disappeared in beautiful colors of orange and red.

It looked like whatever the message contained for Mr. Yamada it would be disregarded now…

~88

"How did the mission go?" Pein asked tonelessly.

Scoffing Deidara held in a growl as he placed the bag of money on the wooden desk. "The dumbass killed our target un."

Deidara wished he could say differently as it might help him get a new partner but it looked like Tobi was there to stay. Unfortunately.

"I see."

Deidara couldn't figure out _what_ Pein was thinking… not that that was new. They had arrived less than an hour ago and Deidara had gotten Tobi off his back for the moment as he gave his report to Pein. The idiot had been talking endlessly about their mission and occasionally asking if he'd done well. He'd been beyond frustrated and annoyed that the second they entered the hideout he zoomed off to Pein's office making sure Tobi didn't come.

The dumbass had shouted something about food but Deidara hardly paid it any mind. Hopefully Pein wouldn't assign another mission for a few days at least. He really needed some Tobi free time.

"Your next mission will be to gather the three tails. That's Tobi's quote. However all missions have been post phoned. I suggest you both do research with your time off seeing as the three tails location is unknown." Pein stated aloofly.

Deidara opened his mouth to retort but then closed it with a scowl. No matter what he said it wouldn't change anything and he just didn't have the energy to argue.

Pein lightly smirked at the blonds' expression before gesturing to the money, "Take the money to Kakuzu. You're dismissed."

~88

Meanwhile Tobi flittered around the kitchen, searching the cupboards and pantry for something healthy and easy to make.

Finally Tobi spotted a can of soup in the way back in the brown cupboard with a shout of joy he quickly pulled it out. He scanned the label, noting with mild dismay that it was 'chicken and noodle'; well at least it was food.

Just as he poured the contents into a pan Kisame and Itachi entered, Itachi took a seat while Kisame began rifling for his pancake mix.

Tobi backed away from the stove to give Kisame room to cook, while keeping his attention on the cooking soup.

"So how'd the mission go?" Kisame asked with a toothy grin.

"Great! Tobi killed our target without any help from Senpai!" Tobi bragged while scratching the back of his head with his left hand. "B-but Tobi didn't really want to…"

Kisame turned from his first pancake with a raised eyebrow, "Didn't want to do what?"

Tobi sighed slightly yet still sounding cheerful as he stared at Kisame's 'Kiss the cook' apron that was blue. "Tobi didn't want to kill her…"

Kisame studied the orange mask with no results as he frowned, "That's a part of being a ninja." He didn't bother to mention that it was also a part of being an Akatsuki member. "If you didn't want to kill anyone then why did you want to be a member?" Though Kisame mildly suspected it was because Deidara was a member. And if Tobi became one then he'd get to spend more time with the blond.

Tobi's hands shot up, waving them frantically as he shook his head negatively, "No! That's not the problem Kisame-san!" Tobi paused as he noted the skeptical look before lowering his arms, "She didn't do anything bad to Tobi, so Tobi just felt that it was kind of wrong to kill her…"

Kisame stared blankly at the most lively ninja in the organization before sighing heavily, really what could he say to that? To be a ninja entitled being a killer, it made him wonder how Tobi got this far as one.

Kisame focused his attention back on his pancakes, depositing them onto a plate and caring them to the table. As he turned back towards the stove, Tobi had begun pouring the hot soup into a bowl. Tobi quickly placed the dirty dish into the sink before scurrying over to the table and placing the warm bowl down.

"Do you want any pancakes Tobi?" Kisame asked. He was already cooking so it would be no problem to make more. They didn't really have anything else; they were in need to go shopping. But no one enjoyed doing so and it was being put off. Kisame was sure that any day now Pein would force someone to do it.

"Sure!" Tobi squealed. Itachi shot the masked male an evil look before going back to eating. Tobi completely ignored the Uchiha's glare as he nodded enthusiastically at Kisame.

Kisame chuckled and set about making some for the male. He piled a few onto a plate and set them on the table before the masked nin who stood bouncing a little by the warm soup.

"Thanks Kisame!"

Kisame nodded and jus t as he turned, Deidara entered the kitchen, his hair in his usually partial pony tail and still in his Akatsuki cloak.

"Senpai!" Tobi shouted loudly gaining a furious glare from Itachi and a small wince from Kisame.

Deidara leveled an agitated glare at the spiky raven male, "Shut up hmm!" The blond then proceeded to retrieve a glass and poured some water.

"Hey Dei-chan." Kisame greeted. "Do you want some pancakes?"

Deidara turned towards the mist nin with a small frown while shaking his head. Tobi jolted and shifted mildly away from the table and in the ex-iwa nins direction.

"Tobi made you some soup Senpai!"

Kisame raised an eyebrow slightly surprised. He'd thought the soup was for the masked nin. Itachi remained quiet and continued eating.

Deidara's eye twitched and he scowled at his idiotic partner, though he was somewhat surprised at the gesture. It was one thing for Tobi to cook something for him when he was sick but to just do it out of the blue was… odd.

"Not hung-"

"Senpai!" Tobi cut in, his tone slightly stern as the three other nins stared and gapped (minus Itachi who just stared) at the orange masked male.

"You haven't eaten anything in days. When we were on our mission you kept giving excuses. You need to eat something!" Tobi sternly stated, his voice gradually rising till he ended up shouting at the feminine blond.

Kisame quickly recovered from his surprise and also turned a stern look to the still gapping blond, "I agree with Tobi Dei. It's not healthy to not eat."

At the missing suffix from his name Deidara closed his mouth, blinking several times before frowning angrily. "I'm not hungry." Plainly ignoring the other's words and heading towards the exit intending to leave.

"Deidara." Kisame snapped.

The shark nin got the desired effect as the blond came to a stop, glancing over his shoulder with a pissed look on his features. Tobi nodding frantically still near the table while Itachi stared blandly at the blue eyed teen.

Deidara's face darkened farther, "It's my body hmm! If I don't want to eat then I won't! It's none of your business!"

"Senpai. It is to Tobi's business." Tobi uttered quietly but with a sad undertone in his voice.

Deidara ground his teeth and just as he went to snap a retort to Tobi's ridicules words, another voice spoke.

"Why do not want to eat?"

Deidara froze. It was such a simple question yet difficult to answer. Deidara growled lowly at Itachi, the one who'd asked the question with hate piercing his blue eyes. He hated Itachi and he had the nerve to ask such a thing.

"Why do _you_ care?" Deidara retaliated. In fact why did any of them care? He eyed the three before huffing angrily. If he stayed any longer he'd blow the kitchen up along with the three busy bodies. And Pein not to mention Kakuzu would be furious if he did such a thing.

Kisame shifted slightly closer to the pissed artist, "Why wouldn't we Dei?"

Deidara's head snapped to the blue skinned male, his visible blue eye studying the others face and eyes. But all he saw was genuine concern.

Were they (minus Itachi) really concerned at his lack of eating?

Some of his anger diminished, '_when had they started to care'_? Tobi he could understand but Kisame? Sure he was closest to the mist nin but to care about something so trivial? It was… odd. And yet he felt a small warm sensation that he determinedly ignored.

"Come on Senpai. Have some soup." Tobi gently prodded.

Judging from the look Kisame was giving him and knowing how persistent Tobi is, Deidara figured it'd be the simplest if he went ahead and ate.

Sighing heavily Deidara made his way to the table with a scowl planted on his face, "Fine un."Tobi squealed in delight, obviously happy the blond was eating.

As Deidara went about eating Kisame decided to let go the unanswered question that Itachi had asked. He sincerely doubted the blond would answer or give them a truthful one anyways. So long as they could keep the blond eating Kisame wasn't overly concerned in knowing the blonds reasons for refusing to eat. With a final glance at the blond Kisame headed over to the stove to make his own pancakes.

~ End Chapter

Longest chapter!

Not much action… I had originally planned their 1st mission differently with fighting but sadly this is what came out. I like this enough that I didn't want to even try to change it. But there will be more fighting in future chapters. Posted: 03/06/2012


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: See 1st Chapter

Warnings: See 1st Chapter

Mild usage of Japanese Terms, such as: Chan, Danna, Sama.

This chapter was Beta by **JJKMagic - **Thanks

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 7 – Warmth and Rain

It'd been three days since Deidara and Tobi returned from their first mission as partners. And in three short days the Akatsuki hideout had gotten colder. Sure being inside a cave was bound to get cold – which it did but it went _way_ beyond just cold as Kakuzu took to cutting costs. He'd taken to using very little heat, leaving it freezing during the night and during the day. It was certainly more tolerable in the daytime but at night… it was frustratingly freezing.

It certainly didn't help that it was snowing off and on, leaving about three inches of snow and gradually rising with each passing day. But no matter how much everyone complained, Kakuzu remained his greedy stubborn self and refused to allow the heat to run decently.

Deidara sincerely wished the floor in the room he shared with Tobi had a mat, walking barefoot on the cold cement was _not _fun. Perhaps he could weasel Kakuzu to let him get _something _for situations like this.

The ex-iwa nin sat huddled on his bed, his dark blue blanket wrapped tightly around him. His long blond hair hung down around him, hiding one side of his face. He'd taken his eye scope off and had settled onto his bed with intentions to sleep but unfortunately it was _far_ too cold again, as it had been the last few nights.

Each member had one blanket and it wasn't very thick, and regrettably Deidara didn't have any warm clothes. Why? Deidara had never deemed it worth getting any, now though he was seriously contemplating buying (stealing if he had to) warm thick clothing to sleep in.

The door opened, stilling Deidara's thoughts as Tobi shuffled in, dressed all in black as usual. Neither male said anything as the masked nin made his way to his bed, it was late and both (Deidara more than Tobi) was exceedingly tired. The last few nights had been unbearably cold, the ex-iwa nin hadn't been able to sleep, much to his irritation and frustration.

Deidara watched tiredly as Tobi flung back his covers; also blue and settled under them snuggly, his orange mask still firmly in place. Despite being partners now Tobi still wore his mask, always, he even slept with it on. It made Deidara wonder what Tobi was hiding. Perhaps the other had a disfigured face? Whatever it was Deidara didn't particularly care, he just found it strange that the dumbass _slept _with it on.

Tobi was completely still and Deidara wondered if the idiot had fallen asleep already. For some reason the cold didn't seem to bother the dumbass and Deidara couldn't fathom why. Perhaps the masked nin was used to such weather. He didn't know nor did he really care. But it ticked him off that Tobi could be warm and sleep in this achingly freezing room while he sat here shivering.

Huffing Deidara fell onto his side in a vain attempt at sleeping facing the wall, his back to Tobi. He didn't know when they'd have their next mission and he'd rather not be overly tired. Tobi required a lot of energy. And it was never smart to start a mission already tired.

Deidara lay still, as moving would only cause him to lose what little warmth he had, and snapped his eyes shut. Unfortunately Deidara had to clench his mouth tight to prevent his teeth from chattering as it steadily grew colder as the night dragged on.

It didn't look like he'd be getting any sleep again tonight…

_Damn cold__,__ un._ He thought as he pressed his face into his pillow.

Tobi listened to the quiet movements of the blue eyed teen as he kept his eye closed. It was the third night that the cave had become freezing, not practically ideal for sleeping. And it didn't look like the cold would be leaving anytime soon.

Which meant Deidara would not be getting any sleep at this rate until his body conked out from exhaustion.

Or Tobi could fix that. He knew that the blond would be far from thrilled with his idea _but_ being able to get some sleep Tobi was sure would change (if grudgingly) the blond's mind.

He didn't like that his blond was suffering (even though it was just from the cold) and if it wasn't for the fact that the blond would have vehemently refused Tobi would have already done something to help. Now though it'd been a few days, and with lack of sleep, he was sure the blond would be far more willing to the idea.

Silently Tobi slid out from under his covers and stood, his gaze peering at the blond on the other side of the small room.

Deidara inwardly groaned, hating that Kakuzu was such a cheap bastard. Just because he was the Akatsuki's treasury, self-appointed, shouldn't mean that he got away with taking their _heat. _Pein was the Leader… then again if Pein was bothered by the cold as much as Deidara was then he was sure Pein would have the heat running on high. So perhaps Pein didn't care…

Maybe Deidara could convince Pein to let them run the heat, at least during the night. He wanted his sleep!

His thoughts derailed as he felt the bed dip. His eyes snapped open but he didn't turn around. It didn't take a genius to know it was his idiotic partner. Deidara furrowed his brow, strange that he hadn't heard the dumbass…

Disregarding the thought, Deidara figured it was due to his lack of sleep as he growled out, "What Tobi?" He was in no mood to talk to the masked nin.

Ignoring the blond's question Tobi stated, "Senpai's cold." He sat at the edge of Deidara's bed as he stared at the bundled up blond. The dark blue blanket was the only thing he could see, he lightly tugged on it ignoring the warning growl from the younger male.

Deidara scoffed at the idiot's ridiculous words. "So what of it?" he bit out.

"Maybe Tobi can help!" Tobi chirped cheerily but his tone much milder then it usually was.

Deidara closed his eyes, partially hoping it would block the other's voice out, "No hmm." He didn't want to even hear how Tobi could _help_. He didn't need any help, not from any one, especially not from _Tobi_.

"B-but Sen-"

Growling Deidara snapped, "Go back to bed!"

Silence followed but Deidara knew the idiot hadn't left as he didn't feel the bed dip – which would signal the other getting off. His eye twitched and Deidara felt a headache starting to develop, just has he opened his mouth to shout at the dumbass again, his eyes snapped open in shock as arms wrapped around him and drew him close to a firm warm body, Tobi had clearly laid down.

"W-what the hell dumbass!" His body tense and rigid, his heart beating rapidly Deidara felt a small jolt of panic fester. Tobi was too close...

Tobi's arms tightened lightly around the thin frame, enjoying the feel of the other pressed against him. He felt a small prick of joy at being this close to his blond. Sure he hugged the blond but was always thrown off and then injured (by bomb or physical attack). It was such an incredible feeling; he didn't want this to end. He frowned lightly; he could feel how tense the blond was…

"Body heat, Senpai" Tobi murmured into the artist's ear earning a small shiver.

True to Tobi's words Deidara could feel the heat radiating from the masked nin and slowly filter into him. It was such a nice change from the cold, Deidara wanted to just close his eyes and sleep, really wanting to take advantage of the free warmth but it was _Tobi._

Deidara had never slept this close to someone else… and with Tobi holding him firmly Deidara found it a bit suffocating. Tobi, he was _too close_…

Deidara squirmed a little, hoping Tobi would get the hint and release him, unfortunately the other only gripped a little tighter.

"Let go." Deidara hissed, keeping his tone low.

"No." Tobi felt a jolt of pleasure flood his veins at the blond's squirming. If Deidara wasn't careful he'd brush over his lower anatomy… And he really didn't need a hard on right now. It was too soon to make _that_ kind of move.

Deidara gapped, sure he hadn't expected Tobi to _just_ let go but something in Tobi's voice sounded _off… _It wasn't like Tobi to talk back to him like that. He usually stammered or whined, ending up conceding, right then Tobi seemed different.

Feeling an unjustified fear grip him, Deidara struggled to keep his voice even, "Why not, un?"

Deidara felt Tobi's head shift slightly as he uttered just as softly as before, "Because you're cold, Senpai."

Deidara's forehead knitted together, not entirely sure what to say, he lacked his usual energy and the warmth from Tobi was making it harder to concentrate. His mind was telling him to just give in and sleep.

But he'd be damned if he let Tobi-

"Sleep, Senpai." Tobi cut through Deidara's thoughts. Deidara jerked but didn't succeed in moving the slightest bit, and realization swept over his face. Tobi _wasn't_ letting go.

"Why are you so warm hmm?"

Tobi grinned from under his mask, knowing that Deidara had conceded. "Tobi dresses in layers, Senpai!" he stated as if it was obvious.

"Tch." The clay artist scoffed while closing his eyes.

Tobi felt the blond slowly relax and murmured quietly, "Night, Senpai."

He waited till he heard the blond breathing evenly signaling he was asleep. He pressed a little closer into the smaller body as he closed his eye. He couldn't wait till the day they were sleeping _together_… That had nothing to do with keeping each other warm – well not _just _warm. With a small smile at the thought Tobi drifted off.

~88

A blue eye peeked open, his blurry gaze settling after blinking a few times. Deidara noted it was morning, but was too warm and comfortable to move. Closing his eyes he pressed his face into the soft material of his blanket.

Exhaling softly Deidara's mind drifted lightly, thinking about fireworks and art until…

His eyes snapped open as a pair of arms tightened around him, his body tensing. Instantly the previous night slammed into him, how could he forget that Tobi had jumped into his bed and pinned him against the other. How in the world had he not felt… acknowledged the weight of the other?

Deidara felt Tobi press his masked face into him from behind, his face flushed lightly in embarrassment and from the closeness of the other. He'd never slept next to someone before, let alone been pressed up against them.

Swallowing thickly Deidara debated on what to do. He'd had no luck yanking free from Tobi last night, would he manage now? If Tobi was asleep maybe… but it felt like he was awake… If he was, he'd be up and hyper so perhaps the dumbass was sleeping still.

Deidara gripped his blanket tightly while glaring.

Tobi smirked behind his mask, the blond had tensed the second he'd moved but he had yet to say anything. And Tobi was going to milk this as long as he could.

Closing his eye contentedly as the blond idly squirmed, a thought struck him causing him to frown. Inwardly Tobi sighed; now _would_ be a good time…

"Ne, Senpai?" he murmured quietly, causing the teen to still.

Sucking in a deep breath of air Deidara tilted his head slightly, trying to look at the masked nin. _How long had Tobi been awake?_

When it was clear that Deidara wasn't going to respond Tobi spoke up, "Why do you keep skipping meals?"

Deidara's brow knitted, of all the things the dumbass could have asked it was about his eating? Why did Tobi worry about that so much?

Shaking his head briefly, Deidara bit his lip, debating, before sighing lowly. Since the idiot was being so persistent Deidara figured it'd be smart to just tell him. Maybe then the dumbass would shut up about it.

"It's a waste hmm."

Tobi blinked confused, "How is eating a waste… Senpai?"

Deidara scowled, he'd answered damn it! Tobi should be satisfied… never mind this _was _Tobi he was talking about.

"It takes time to eat, un. Time I'd rather spend doing useful, important things." Like working on his art Deidara thought with a fleeting grin.

Tobi's arms tightened almost painfully around him, causing Deidara to squeak as he jerked mildly attempting to get free. Tobi had never hurt him before but as of late Tobi had weird changes in demeanor and actions, however slight it was. Deidara found it disconcerting.

"Senpai…" Tobi spoke, closing his eye for a moment to contemplate the best way to sink the 'eating is necessary' into the blond's head. He honestly couldn't believe the teen was being this stupid… He had been figuring that the teen was depressed about something…

"I know you love working on your art a lot, Senpai, but eating is a necessity. If you don't provide food for your body you'll get sick. It's-"

Tobi cut off as Deidara jerked, growling, "I'm **not** stupid! I still eat, un!"

"Not enough," Tobi stated calmly.

Deidara gritted his teeth, seething; it was none of Tobi's damn business! And he sure as hell didn't need a lecture from the dumbass! The way Tobi was talking was unlike him, he sounded… smart.

Growling Deidara hissed, "It's none of your business!" He repeated from the other day.

"Yes, Senpai, it is." Tobi murmured quietly despite Deidara's growing rage.

Deidara jerked again, shifting, trying to turn around so he could push Tobi away. He had little luck; Tobi's grip was vice-like. "Let go!"

Tobi ignored the other's demand, "Please, Senpai! Tobi's only worried about you! You may not regret it now but if you keep foregoing meals you'll regret it for sure later!"

Deidara stilled in trying to shove the other away, Tobi's concerned voice penetrating the haze of anger. Breathing deeply Deidara frowned. _W__hy does Tobi care so much?_

No one had ever cared about him, not back in Iwa, not before joining, not even as he became a member of the Akatsuki. So why…? Why does Tobi care? This was a question he'd been asking a lot recently… and he still couldn't come up with an answer.

Tobi had tried to get close to him ever since they first met; no matter how cruel he was in return Tobi always came back, always vying for his attention. What did Tobi _see_ in him? He, who was a freak…,

Pursing his lips Deidara sighed, before blandly saying. "Let go, un."

Deidara felt Tobi jolt slightly as he frantically shook his head, "B-but Senpai-"

Fed up Deidara slammed his elbow into Tobi's stomach earning a small 'Oomph'. Yet Tobi kept his arms firmly wrapped around the artist.

Deidara scowled, his anger crawling back, just as he opened his mouth to snap at the idiot Tobi beat him to it, "At least consider it, Senpai, please?"

Huffing Deidara closed his eyes but none the less nodded. If it stopped Tobi from pestering him about it he'd give the other's words some thought.

At the blond's nod Tobi slowly, reluctantly removed his arms from the teen, who quickly bolted away and sat up dragging his blanket with him, making sure it was around him tightly.

Before Deidara could shove Tobi off his bed, the masked nin sat up and stood. Deidara blinked warily as Tobi stared at him quietly. Just as Deidara was about to grab some clay and throw it at the idiot, Tobi stated, "Tobi's going to take a shower."

As Tobi disappeared into their shared bathroom Deidara deflated slightly, it was unnerving how Tobi was behaving. It wasn't much of a change but in all the time he'd known the masked nin, he had never seen him be… serious.

Closing his eyes Deidara sighed heavily as he ran a mouthed hand through his lightly tangled hair, as he waited for Tobi to get done so he could shower.

Already Deidara was ignoring this entire incident. Sharing a bed with _Tobi_ was going to be just a dream, a forgotten, distant dream.

And if Tobi _ever _mentioned it, he would bomb the idiot into oblivion. Dropping his hand with a sigh Deidara frowned.

_So much for going back to sleep…_

~88 (Time Skip)

Deidara sighed, brushing the fringe of hair from his face only to have it settle back in place, causing a small frown to form.

"Aren't I good, Senpai? I took care of the Sanbi all on my own, in one hit!" Tobi boasted as he skipped, waving his arms frantically to his words.

_He's _still_ going on about that? _Deidara thought agitatedly.

Deidara scoffed, irritated, "My art is what took care of the Sanbi hmm. All you did was whine and run around like a coward!"

Tobi stopped skipping as he swung around to face his Senpai, "Tobi helped!"

Deidara raised an eyebrow, a smirk forming as he stared into the hole in Tobi's orange mask, "Helped? You just said that you beat the Sanbi in one hit all by yourself, un." He often, in times of down time wondered what Tobi's eye color is, but no matter how many times he looked into the eye hole of the mask he couldn't see anything but darkness. Maybe the reason Tobi was such an idiot was because he could barely see out of that thing and banged his head a lot…

Tobi jolted visibly, he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he waved off the blond's words. Deidara gave Tobi a scrutinizing glare before closing his eye with a sigh.

It had been nearly a year since Tobi became his partner and although Tobi was still as aggravating and annoying as he always was he had to admit that it was a nice change from his previous partnership with Sasori. With Tobi he was the one bossing around someone and the mood was more relaxing then it had ever been with Sasori.

One main downside to having Tobi as a partner though was that he never stuck around during a fight. It got to the point that Deidara had Tobi as mild support. If he needed something planted, say in the ground, he'd have Tobi do it. He'd taken to training the dumbass somewhat, usually in lectures. Somehow, Tobi had wormed his way under his skin… Deidara _cared_ about Tobi… kind of. But still cared… mostly it was worry. During a fight he'd make sure that the other was out of the way and after, that he was okay…

It was odd that after all the years of hating and finding the masked nin annoying and such, he now that they were partners, cared for the idiot if only a little.

Deidara scowled, crossing his arms; he had never cared about another human being as he did for Tobi. With Sasori, it had been mostly about respect; besides the puppeteer had been able to look after himself. With Sasori they talked constantly about art, Tobi didn't understand _a thing_ about art, making it hard to have a decent conversation.

It left an odd feeling inside him… worrying, _caring_ about someone else… and he wasn't sure what to make of it. He couldn't decide if it was a good thing or not…

"Ne, Senpai?" Tobi asked. Breaking into Deidara's musing. "Hmm?"

"Shouldn't we get going?"

It'd been several weeks since the sealing of the Sanbi and Pein had 'requested' a meeting. Usually they'd use their astral projections, which enabled them to all be present even if no one was near each other. However since the date of the meeting wasn't for a few days, Tobi and Deidara had decided to head back to the hideout were the meeting would take place. If they didn't get there before the scheduled date they'd use the jutsu required.

Nodding Deidara turned from the masked nin, who was staring quietly at him, and headed into the dense forest. Shaking his head Deidara scowled, Tobi had been doing that a lot lately, just _staring_ at him. It made him wonder what the other was thinking. It was unnerving, often Deidara thought the dumbass was mocking him, he couldn't see the other's face and at times like this it was infuriating. It pissed him off…

"Wait for Tobi, Senpai!" Tobi squealed and was entirely ignored as he chased after the disappearing blond.

~88

Night had fallen; having been walking the whole time Deidara and Tobi _finally_ made it out of the dense forest and were now trailing down a dirt road. The sky was steadily growing with clouds; it looked like it might rain.

Tobi had caught up to his smaller partner and was now walking beside the teen chattering away about this and that. To Deidara, it were mundane and pointless things.

Tobi tilted his head toward the sky as a rain drop hit his mask. The clouds had darkened and were now starting to rain. In seconds Deidara and Tobi were drenched.

Deidara sighed heavily with a scowl as Tobi squealed, "It's raining, Senpai!"

"Shut up hmm." Deidara growled; his patience had long since evaporated. He had been debating which creature to make to bomb Tobi with… but now that it was raining, he'd have to wait… Tch.

Tobi ignored the pissed blond as he skipped ahead of the other waving his arms, enjoying the rain.

Deidara pulled his cloak tighter around him, he hated the rain. Not as much as snow but he hated the feeling of his clothes sticking to him.

Thunder broke out, causing Deidara to stop as his eye drifted to the sky, a small grin etching across his face. He loved thunder, lightning. They were just like his art, fleeting.

Tobi pulled to a stop when he realized that Deidara was no longer walking behind him, he swiftly turned to find the blond gazing up at the sky, eyes intensely focused and a small, loving, genuine smile on his face. He looked stunning, beautiful.

Tobi felt a small pang of jealousy shoot through him feeling mildly depressed. _Why couldn't Deidara look at him like that?_ Even after all this time being partners he'd still made little progress…

Sighing inaudibly Tobi spoke softly yet loud enough to be heard, "Senpai?"

Deidara blinked, a frown instantly taking over as his gaze landed on Tobi. The masked nin stood still, quietly several paces ahead. Walking towards the other Deidara ignored the idiot as he focused on finding an inn to get out of the rain.

Tobi deflated slightly before bounding after the other, cheerful as ever.

As the pair grew closer to the village, a rather run down one from what was visible Tobi shifted his attention to the quiet ex-Iwa nin.

"Senpai?"

Deidara grunted not sparing the masked nin a glance, his thoughts focused on getting to the village and inside a nice warm room.

"Do you miss Sasori?" Tobi asked gently, cautiously.

Deidara blanched as his feet came to a stop on their own. What the hell? Where had _that_ come from? He glared furiously at his idiotic partner who had stopped walking the minute Deidara had. Tobi was wringing his hands together, his posture clearly nervous.

"What kind of question is that?" Deidara shouted. In all the time since Sasori's death and being paired with Tobi, not once had Tobi asked him that. Sure he _mentioned_ Sasori but that was as far as it went.

Tobi jerked back slightly bringing his hands up placatingly, "It's just… the way you acted about Sasori's death…" Tobi paused as Deidara's eye narrowed dangerously; if it hadn't been raining the blond would have already thrown a bomb at Tobi, putting an end to the conversation.

"Did you love him?" Tobi asked instead, forgoing his pitiful explanation. His tone was curious but held a dangerous tint to it that went unnoticed.

Deidara wasn't sure how Tobi came to that conclusion, or why he'd think he'd loved Sasori. He respected him… **had** and that was all there was to it. After being abused he'd felt nothing but hate for the other, only holding a respect for the other's art.

Turning from the masked male Deidara sighed, "Don't be stupid hmm. I respected him, that was it." Not wanting to spend any more time on this subject or hear what else Tobi had to say, he sped forward the last few paces to the village.

~88

Deidara flopped backward onto the bed, having just got out of a warm shower, closing his eyes in content. The bed wasn't all that comfortable but it was better than sleeping outside in the rain. Rolling over Deidara pulled back the ugly yellow comforter and settled underneath.

The bed dipped and Deidara's eyes shot open, he sat up swiftly with a glare. "Fuck no, un!"

"Aw but Senpai, there's only one bed!" Tobi whined from where he sat at the edge of the bed dressed in black, his orange mask ever-present.

Deidara growled, "Sleep on the floor for all I care!"

Tobi grinned under his mask knowing Deidara couldn't see as he leaned forward, "But Senpai we shared before, why not know?"

Deidara gapped at Tobi, his eye twitching as his face flushed lightly before anger spread through his veins and he glared furiously at the other, "Shut up hmm!"

Tobi titled his head with a small chuckle at the blond's reaction, "Why?"

Deidara clenched his fist, fed up he quickly went for some clay but before he could grab any Tobi bolted forward gripping his wrist, "N-no wait Senpai! If you blow up the room-"

"I don't care about the room!" Deidara roared, yanking on his arm but unable to free it. "Let go hmm!"

Tobi sighed inwardly at the blond's stubbornness, "Please let Tobi, Senpai. I'll stay on my side! Promise!" Tobi pleaded, dropping the damage costs.

Deidara glared angrily at Tobi for several moments before closing his eyes and breathing out slowly, "Fine. You better."

Tobi dropped the teen's wrist with an ecstatic squeal, "Yay! Thank you Senpai!"

Before Deidara could blink Tobi launched himself forward, glomping the pissed ex-iwa nin. Deidara jerked back slightly at the added weight as he scowled, the hug lasted all of a few seconds as Tobi then proceeded to lay down while pulling the ugly yellow blanket over him.

"Night Senpai!"

Deidara twitched before cooling down, he leaned over and switched the light off and lay down. Closing his eyes Deidara tried in vain to ignore the dumbass only inches away.

~End

Note – There is a mistake in here that I decided that I did not want to even try to fix. They had their 1st mission then it jumped into Sanbi and a whole year going by… Just imagine that there were other missions between the 1st and Sanbi.

It's really not major to the plot which is why I'm not going to bother with it.

Posted: 03/16/2012


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Warnings: See 1st Chapter

Mild usage of Japanese Terms, such as: Chan, Danna, Sama.

Edited by JJKMagic

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 8 – Even Criminals Can Care

Deidara crossed his arms irritated. Kakuzu and Hidan were having another argument about Hidan bleeding all over the place and the amount of money it required to clean and fix everything.

Zetsu was having a conversation with himself, his dark side getting a bit loud occasionally. Kisame stood near Itachi, trying to have a conversation but having little luck as the raven 'hn-ed' to everything that was said. But Kisame continually grinned, apparently not the slightest bit offended.

Konan stood with her arms crossed and plain irritation visible as her orange eyes stared fixatedly at the bickering zombie pair.

Tobi was waving his arms, switching from trying to talk to Zetsu to Deidara, spouting crap about the weather or flowers and anything else that popped into his brain.

Deidara felt tick marks start to throb at all the noise and prayed Pein would show up soon for his damn meeting. All members save their leader were present; Itachi and Kisame were the only team in person, everyone else was using the jutsu for astral projection.

As much as Deidara and Tobi traveled they hadn't made it to the base before the meeting as they had planned, but Deidara thanked whoever was out there that they hadn't made it since Itachi was in person. And as much as he wanted a rematch with the Uchiha, now wasn't the right time.

He was training his left eye, which he'd been doing for years but he wanted to make certain it was strong, since the fiasco with the copy nin proved he could be better.

"Senpai! Ne, Senpai!" Tobi shouted repeatedly.

The former Iwa nin pointedly ignored him much to the other's disappointment.

"Ne, Zetsu-san!" Tobi gave up for the time being to gain his Senpai's attention and shifted back to his former mentor with glee.

"All of you shut up!" Konan snapped, her tolerance gone as she glared furiously at the men who instantly quieted at her shout.

Hidan grinned, leering at the only female member, "Aw, why the fuck should we? Is Miss Pussy having her fucking 'time of the month'?"

Konan's mouth fell open before her eyes narrowed into slits, "Say that _again_ I dare you." Her tone soft but murderous.

Hidan smirked and went to repeat himself-

"Enough," an aloof voice intervened.

All eyes swiveled to their Leader who had_ finally_ arrived. His rinnegan eyes were boring holes into Hidan, daring him to repeat those words.

Hidan swallowed nervously before scowling angrily. Pein may not be able to harm him at the moment but he sure as hell would when they met in person. And as much as he loved pain he didn't enjoy being disassembled for several days.

Pein glanced around once to make sure no one would speak before voicing, "This meeting will now commence."

Deidara sighed quietly as he vaguely listened to the discussion. A while back Kakuzu and Hidan had a run in with several leaf nin and almost bit it. Kakuzu had lost all but one heart, to say the least he was furious at having to replace them. Hidan had his head severed and then was blown into several pieces and buried. Deidara wasn't sure how he'd been recovered but didn't really care.

What was Pein's big interest and mild concern was that the nine tails brat had been responsible for two of Kakuzu's lost lives. Apparently the kid was growing at a startling rate. Capturing the kid was Itachi's quote… but he had yet to grab him.

Deidara glanced at the emotionless Uchiha who had his eyes closed; he wondered what the cold-hearted weasel was thinking. Sometimes Deidara felt as if Itachi didn't _care_ about the organization. But he _had_ joined willingly…

Shaking his head Deidara shifted his focus back to Pein in time to catch, "Orochimaru has been killed."

Deidara's mouth fell open in stunned shock as he stared unbelievingly at Pein. _That can't be… I was going to kill that snake bastard!_ Deidara thought furiously, missing the glance from Kakuzu and Kisame.

"Really?" Kisame asked with disbelief. He wasn't the only one who didn't believe Pein's words.

Pein nodded briefly glancing in Deidara's direction, who swallowed, snapping his mouth shut.

Hidan burst out laughing, doubling over slightly, "That's fucking rich! Who's the fucker that pulled that off?"

Konan shot the jashinist a heated glare but remained silent.

Tobi bounced slightly, an arm waving in the air but before he could utter a word Pein shot the masked nin a glare muttering, "Not now, Tobi."

"Aw…" Tobi whined loudly only gaining glares from several members. Pouting Tobi crossed his arms.

"Well?" Kakuzu asked at the delay. "Who was it?"

Pein closed his rinnegan eyes briefly as he uttered, "Sasuke Uchiha."

"What!?" Hidan shouted. "Seriously?"

Deidara clenched his fists tightly enough that they bled lightly though didn't show through the astral projection. He glanced quickly at Itachi who had opened his eyes at the mention of his little brother; his face remained passive as always.

"Are you sure?" Deidara bit out, ignoring the startled noise from a few of the members at questioning Pein in such a tone.

Pein sighed softly, not blaming the blond for being pissed, "Quite sure." His rinnegan eyes locking with Deidara's azure ones, he continued, "Zetsu checked. It was the three year mark and it would seem that Sasuke didn't care to let Orochimaru have his body. So he killed him."

Deidara felt tightness in his chest and throat as he grinded his teeth, _how dare that little Uchiha brat kill Orochimaru! He was mine to kill!_

"Wow Itachi, who would have thought your little brother had it in him… Or that he'd be strong enough to," Kisame muttered with a feral grin, glancing sideways at his partner. "I guess his motivation to kill you has gotten stronger."

Itachi hummed shortly but made no comment as he reclosed his eyes. Kisame eyed his expression, his grin faltering slightly before turning away to settle his gaze on Pein.

"Right now," Pein spoke up in the silence that had fallen, gaining everyone's attention easily, "Sasuke Uchiha who has been gathering allies is currently seeking out Itachi. Also-"

"Who fucking cares?" Hidan interrupted with a laugh, ignoring the dangerous glare leveled at him from Pein. "He did us a favor and it's not like he'll find weasel face anyways."

"Hidan," Kakuzu snapped, his green eyes boring into his silver haired partner with irritation.

Hidan turned swiftly to the covered nin with a sneer.

"Quiet!" Pein barked menacingly.

Hidan scoffed, a hand planting itself on his hip but refrained from speaking.

"As we speak, the nine tails jinchuuriki and a group of leaf nin are searching for Sasuke Uchiha. If they are to meet, there is a good possibility that the jinchuuriki will be killed. Therefore-"

"Pein," Konan unexpectedly interrupted, garnering everyone's attention. Pein mildly scowled but nodded for Konan to speak.

"Perhaps it would be better if we killed Sasuke, instead of going after the kyuubi at this point of time. He is, after all, with a group who is no doubt formidable," Konan softly voiced, her orange eyes fixed on Itachi's face, looking for any hint of emotion.

"But don't we need the Kyuubi?" Tobi asked loudly, his arms crossed and staring straight at Konan. "Wouldn't it be a good idea to grab him now?"

Deidara scoffed, "Don't be so stupid hmm!" He would have hit the idiot in the head if he were able.

"Deidara's right," Pein spoke up, his eyes on the orange masked nin. "We are not ready for the kyuubi so there is no point in grabbing him at the moment. If it wouldn't cause undue fighting then we would." Sighing lightly Pein blinked slowly, briefly debating before continuing, "Perhaps Konan is right. Killing Sasuke would be the best solution. He is looking for Itachi, has a small group and there is a possibility for them causing us undue problems."

"Then should we go?" Kisame questioned, glancing between Pein and Itachi.

Tobi made a small noise but was largely ignored. Zetsu turned to the masked nin, his white side murmuring, "Tobi, be a good boy and stay quiet."

Tobi jolted, head spinning to the plant man. "Yes! Of course Zetsu!" While nodding his head in confirmation to being a 'good boy'.

Pein opened his mouth but was beaten to replying, "I want to kill him."

Tobi slowly shifted his attention to the blond artist who was glaring at Pein, his expression clearly stating his desire to be the one to go.

"Dei-chan… we all know that you want to get back at Sasuke for killing Orochimaru but really, Itachi's his brother," Kisame uttered, a small frown visible.

"So?" Deidara scoffed. "If Itachi bastard really wanted to kill Sasuke then he would have done so by now, un." Deidara glared angrily at the shark nin before swinging his gaze back to Pein. "I want to kill him," he reiterated sternly.

"Really fucking brilliant, blondie! You couldn't even fucking kill the copy nin! How do you plan to beat the Uchiha brat with two Sharingan!" Hidan taunted, a sick grin on his face as he recalled the incident, Deidara with no arms…

"Piss off! No one asked you!" Deidara glared venomously at the Jashin worshiper.

Kakuzu sighed heavily, crossing his arms before growling, "The kid was one-handed and low on chakra. It's a miracle he did so well in his condition."

"If he had been at full strength, I'm sure the fight would have gone very differently," Konan softly imputed.

"Senpai… are you sure? Sasuke isn't Orochimaru," Tobi asked slowly.

"Nor is he Itachi," Kakuzu stated.

Deidara's eye twitched and he scowled furiously at everyone. _Fuck them! They just don't understand!_ Instead of shouting he turned his focus on Pein who had finally something to say.

Pein had closed his eyes during the bickering but opened them with a small sigh, staring directly into the blond's azure ones. "Very well. You and Tobi may go and handle Sasuke Uchiha."

Deidara stared blankly for a few seconds, a jolt of elation shooting through him before a smirk broke out across his face and he nodded in reply.

"Leader…? You can't be serious!" Kisame questioned somewhat shrilly. He knew Deidara was capable but against the sharingan? He hadn't fared well against Itachi, he more than likely wouldn't fare any better against Sasuke. Sure the kid had vastly improved, it showed by his handling of the copy nin but still… He didn't want the blond to get killed and he wasn't the only one. What was Pein thinking? Letting Dei go?

"Quite." Pein said emotionlessly.

Kisame deflated, hoping that things turned out alright. He glanced sideways at Itachi, wondering how he felt about this. He knew that the raven still cared deeply for Sasuke but he also had a soft spot for Deidara. Sighing Kisame ran a hand through his short blue hair and put the matter aside.

Pein glanced around the room, eyeing his members before closing his eyes. "Zetsu, I want you to patrol."

"**Understood****,****"** Zetsu's black side finally spoke up, his yellow eyes surveying everyone.

Pein nodded to show the plant man that he'd heard, "We will reconvene in a week. Keep looking for your targets. Everyone is dismissed." Pein then released the jutsu and disappeared, Konan right behind him.

"About fucking time," Hidan grumped, "let's go Kakuzu." He released the jutsu and vanished, Kakuzu following suit.

Zetsu turned to Tobi, uttering quietly, "Be a good boy Tobi," before he vanished to begin patrolling.

Tobi idly nodded but didn't bother to reply to the plant man, his attention on the clay artist. "Should we go, Senpai?"

"Hmm." The sculptor nodded and released the jutsu, Tobi following.

Kisame turned to the silent raven with a small frown. "Are you okay with this?"

Itachi remained silent and released the jutsu leaving Kisame alone in the darkening room.

~88

Deidara groaned as he struggled to open his eyes but found the task to be too difficult, he burned tremendously with exertion when he even attempted. He noted that he was lying on a soft bed, well… considering how soft it was it had to be a bed, and then he noticed that he _hurt _and felt mildly numb. Pain that was everywhere, a blinding hot sensation that made him feel an almost desperate need to vomit.

_What was I last doing… un?_

The blond racked his brain but it was sluggish and no matter how hard he tried nothing came. Nothing that helped him figure out why he was where he was and in pain.

But his nonresponsive eyes didn't bother him nearly as much as the ache that was centered so solidly in the left hand corner of his chest. He tried to shift and froze as a gasp left his mouth, excruciating pain laced up his body. A burning that was almost comparable to being torched alive thrived in that spot, throbbing as if his heart was centered in that place. He clenched his teeth, felt like he was gripping the sheets beneath him as he waited for the pain to settle.

_Fuck!_ Deidara cursed inwardly. He lightly loosened his fingers from the bed sheets as a wave of exhaustion swept over him. Instead of fighting it Deidara welcomed the darkness, deciding to figure things out later, hopefully he'd remember and _feel_ better.

Deidara woke to a hand brushing over his overheated forehead before the trickling of water was heard and something wet was placed on his forehead.

"Dei-chan?" a voice asked gently. It sounded as if it had been carried towards him from a great distance, the voice sounding far away as if it was somewhere on the other side of all the blinding pain.

It took the artist several moments before he recognized the voice, it belonged to Kisame and he struggled to open his mouth but all that came out was a pain-filled groan.

"Can you hear me, Dei-chan?" Kisame asked, his voice low. He attempted to crack a heavy eyelid open, blinking like a sleepy owl when he succeeded and a blurred, mashed version of Kisame came into his line of impaired vision.

As consciousness became more enunciated, the pain hit him like a ton of bricks as it had before, causing large panicked breaths to escape his dry, cracked lips wildly. He squirmed a bit in alarm, prompting Kisame in front of him to place his hands firmly on his shoulder, halting any of his potential movements.

"Relax, Dei-chan. Stay motionless or you'll open your wounds. Konan and Kakuzu went to a lot of trouble to fix you up," Kisame stated firmly yet kindly.

Deidara instantly stilled as Kisame's words processed. He was injured… that explained the mind-numbing pain. It was even more painful than Sasori's poisons had been.

He concentrated on evening his still panic puffs of air as Kisame rewet the cloth and replaced it on the blond's forehead.

No matter how many times he blinked his vision remained blurry, disregarding his sight for the moment he struggled to speak, "W-hat… un… sa me…" His voice was gruff, felt raw as if he'd shoved a dozen cotton balls down it. He grimaced at the thought.

"What happened?" Kisame finished, pretty sure that's what the blond was trying to say.

Deidara barely nodded as Kisame sighed heavily, closing his eyes slowly before answering, "You _tried _to blow yourself up." He frowned down at the teen with anger as he continued, "You nearly succeeded. I'm not quite sure how you survived such a blast…" He trailed off at the bland look on Deidara's face.

Deidara blinked slowly as Kisame's words hit, his brain starting to recall stuff.

…

Deidara jolted, his eyes wide as he blurrily looked at the mist nin, "S-Sasuke!?" He remembered now, he'd used his chest mouth and planned to blow them both up. Surely the Uchiha kid was dead? There was no way he could have survived… He remembered relishing the fear in those damn eyes as his bomb went off.

Kisame grunted; he hadn't wanted to be the one to tell Dei… "He survived. He's in bad shape but he'll live."

Deidara gaped at the shark nin, refusing to believe the other, he lightly shook his head in denial.

"It's true, Dei."

The blond blinked at the lack of a suffix and he rapidly blinked in hope of clearing his vision, he only managed to lessen the blurriness. Gasping lightly at a jolt of pain from moving he thinly voiced, "T-that can't be… un."

Kisame hummed slightly nodding even though the blond couldn't really tell. "We're not sure how he pulled it off but he did. Zetsu confirmed it." A grin flashed across his features momentarily. "But according to him the blast was something to see. A stellar sight for sure." The smile vanished. "I can't believe you were going to blow yourself up! That you _tried_! What's wrong with you, Dei!?"

Deidara jerked his head back ever so at the other's harsh words, gaping. "N-nothings w-wrong… un w...ith me."

Kisame scowled, pissed at Deidara. He had planned on waiting till the kid was much better before yelling at him, but apparently his mouth had a mind of its own as the words burst forth, "Then _why_ did you deliberately try to blow yourself up!? I seriously doubt the Uchiha kid would have killed you, his only interest is Itachi!"

Deidara stared ponderingly at the shark nin even though he couldn't see the other's face clearly, not quite sure why the other was so upset about him nearly succeeding in blowing himself up. Swallowing and trying to clear his throat; it still felt raw and it hurt quite a bit to talk. "So? I always planned to… b-blow myself up… someday hmm. I'm g-going… to go out in… a bang!" He inwardly grinned, glad that he could speak a bit better.

Kisame's mouth fell open in shock, as he stared disbelievingly at the kid. He knew the kid was mentally unstable; practically everyone in the Akatsuki was but to have no problem with killing himself? And sure he, as was everyone else, was aware how much Deidara loved his art. It was his passion, the sole thing that he lived for. But to _willingly_ kill himself… just like that?

It didn't even look like it'd been planned… had he had been planning this all these years?

…And what about the Akatsuki? How could he just kill himself with no regrets? Did he really not care about anyone? Not even him, he who was the closest to the kid?

"So… you planned to do this-"

"Hmm?" Deidara murmured cutting the other off, "I didn't… plan w-when, I just… decided during t-the fight."

Kisame closed his eyes, willing away the anger he felt. Right now, yelling and lecturing the blond wouldn't help. The last thing they needed was for the kid to get worked up and open up his wounds.

"…Same?" Kisame startled out of his musing at the weak, strained voice, his eyes quickly riveting to the blond's pale and sweating face.

"Yes, Dei?" he asked gently.

The blond grimaced and opened his mouth a few times, clearly struggling to say something. Kisame patiently waited as he crossed his arms.

Deidara swallowed repeatedly, the words just didn't seem to want to come… breathing as deeply as he could with a wince he finally spat out the words, "H-how… I don't… g-get hmm…" He vainly tried to lift his hand and gesture but barely managed to lift his fingers. Everything hurt… _hurt _so much but was sure he was drugged because of the mild numbness he could feel.

When the sculptors words died and he didn't succeed in voicing anything else Kisame spoke up, "Like I said, I'm not sure how you survived… you were patched up as best as possible. You suffered severe burns… At least you're still in one piece. Though…" Kisame paused musingly as his eyes ranked over the teen's hair, a grin flashing across his face," Your hair was singed quite badly, Konan gave you a haircut."

His grin widened at the blond's horrified expression, "It's just below your shoulders now, and it'll grow back. I'm surprised it wasn't worse…"

Deidara groaned in reply, his eyes closing, the pain and fatigue getting to him, he really just wanted to go back to sleep.

As if reading his mind Kisame said, "Sleep. It'll help."

Deidara did just that.

~88

This time when Deidara woke, Konan was there, he could tell by the faint smell of perfume. She was the only one who wore a fragrance that smelled like flowers.

She must have noticed he was awake for she asked softly, "Are you feeling better, Dei?" She lightly brushed some hair from the blond's face making sure the IV in his arm was in snugly and working properly.

Deidara found that his sight had much improved, he could _see_ Konan, nothing was blurry, and he felt a small jolt of joy at the accomplishment. He frowned though as he considered her words, how did he _feel_?

He concentrated and opened his eyes, having closed them in thought as he realized that he mostly felt sluggish and heavy.

Sucking in air, he noted that the pain was gone… _drugged most likely__,_he thought with a small frown. Not that he was complaining but why wasn't he this drugged earlier?

Konan eyed the other's face before replying, "You weren't supposed to wake up earlier. I think not enough drugs were used…" She sighed with a shake of her head before continuing, "You've been out for almost two months. Well besides your brief alertness… We… Pein was starting to think you weren't going to wake up."

Konan laughed softly. "He was just being overly worried that's all. Your wounds were horrendous so it's no surprise you've been out so long. In fact it's better that you were so you didn't feel the pain so much."

_Two months…_ Deidara wasn't sure how he should feel about that… On one hand it was better than being conscious but…

"Dei?" Konan interrupted his thoughts, a stiff frown on her features.

He eyed her expression and winced, it looked like she was pissed at him too…

"How could you be so stupid!?" She asked lowly, instead of yelling knowing that it wouldn't help.

Deidara stared for a few moments before sighing heavily, he would have waved his hand but his body was sluggish and hard to move, "…I already had a lecture from 'Same hmm."

Her orange eyes narrowed angrily but she refrained from shouting, "Why?" Her frown darkened, ignoring his words. "Why did you do something so selfish!?"

Deidara gaped. _Selfish?_ "How is wanting to go out with a 'bang' being selfish?"

Konan studied the blond's face, staring deep into his blue eyes before deflating, a small sad smile situating on her mouth. "Dei… why is it so hard for you to understand?"

Deidara frowned questioningly.

Her eyes fell from Deidara's as she stared at the white bed sheets instead, "That we care about you." She answered softly, quietly to his unasked question.

_Care…?_ Deidara blinked confused. This wasn't the first time someone had said that word. Tobi had… Kisame had and now Konan. His thoughts derailed and his eyes shot wide, fear shooting through him. How could he have _forgotten_? "Konan!" He shouted, panicked.

Her head snapped up to the artist's face, wondering what had caused his reaction. It couldn't have been because of what _she _said…

Deidara didn't wait for her to speak, "What about Tobi!? The blast…! Is he…!?"

Her mouth fell open in shock, before a small grin formed, well at least he cared about Tobi, at least enough that he worried about him. She raised a hand to still anything else the blond might say, "He's fine. He's alive."

She paused to let the words sink in. When they did Deidara visibly relaxed, the panic leaving him. He closed his eyes with a sigh and Konan continued, "He's the reason you survived."

The blond's eyes snapped open in stunned shock, his mouth agape and he could only blink at her. When she didn't burst out and say 'just kidding' he closed his mouth.

T-tobi… the dumbass saved me?

Furrowing his brows, a frown worked its way onto his face. "H-how?" He wasn't sure he wanted to know… but a part of him did want to know _how_ the dumbass of all people pulled something impossible off.

Konan's expression blanked and she stared unnervingly at Deidara, who swallowed loudly at the look. "Does it matter?" She asked finally.

When Deidara looked ready to argue she added, "I'm sure he'll tell you… or Pein will."

Deidara scoffed and if he'd been able to he would have crossed his arms.

Konan stood, "Now that you're awake… Tobi's been very worried about you. I'll let him know he can see you." She didn't wait for a response as she turned from the artist and left the room.

~88

It was too silent… Deidara thought in agitation. The room was plain as many in the Akatsuki hideout were, though the room's inhabited by members had various knickknacks. After Konan had left, Deidara had realized that he was not in his and Tobi's shared room. One of the spare rooms for situations like this Deidara had concluded not too long after his realization.

He had then glanced down at himself to see for himself how bad he was but was only met with bandages and a thin blanket that went up to his chest. Considering how he had felt earlier, he wasn't so surprised.

He closed his eyes seeing as there wasn't anything else he could do, he could sleep but he didn't feel particularly tired. Probably since he'd been asleep so long or because he was drugged…

He heard the door open and footsteps approach but he didn't bother to look. Konan had said she would inform Tobi, so it was either him or it was Pein. Deidara wasn't sure which one he'd prefer. Pein had trusted him to kill Sasuke and he'd failed… and Tobi… he had activated his bomb that hit ten kilometers and he was sure that Tobi never would have made it out of the targeted zone when it went off.

He should have died… yet he hadn't and even though Tobi wasn't super smart, Deidara was sure the other could put two and two together.

"How are you feeling…?" Tobi asked quietly, interrupting the blond's thoughts.

Deidara titled his head, his eyes opening to land on Tobi's orange swirled mask. He wore his Akatsuki cloak, his arms at his side, head angled down at the teen.

"Un…" Deidara stared into the hole of the mask but as always couldn't see anything. He couldn't tell what Tobi was thinking though his tone sounded distant. Did that mean Tobi was _mad_ at him? Angry for almost killing him? Or for trying to blow himself up?

"Tobi's glad…" Tobi shifted slightly but left about a foot between himself and the bed. "Tobi was afraid…"

Deidara remained silent. Tobi had never given him a serious lecture before and it almost sounded like he wanted to give one.

"How could you… Senpai? Do you really hate Tobi so much that you'd kill yourself?" Tobi asked his voice tight as he shook lightly.

Deidara gaped, how could Tobi think his blowing up had _anything_ to do with him?It was his dream to go out in a brilliant explosion… it would have been his masterpiece but unfortunately he'd lived…

Deidara shook his head as he brought himself back to Tobi's words, "No… un."

Tobi froze, unclenching his fists as he tilted his head in question.

Deidara decided to elaborate, "I don't hate you hmm. If I did I would have blown you up permanently a long time ago." Deidara lowered his gaze, it was uncomfortable to say such things, and it almost felt mushy… It didn't help that he couldn't see Tobi's expression.

Tobi tilted his head back, looking like he was surveying the other before speaking just as quietly as before, "Tobi's glad to hear that…"

He shuffled closer, capturing Deidara's attention, eyes locking on the orange mask. "But… I'm really angry with you… Senpai."

Deidara felt a chill slide down his spine, Tobi sounded menacingly… It reminded him that there was more to Tobi then he showed.

"And," Tobi continued, "I'm disappointed."

Strangely Deidara felt upset at that… he blamed it on the drugs. Blinking Deidara realized that Tobi was using 'I' instead of speaking in third person. Had he ever spoken normally before? He couldn't recall; he didn't know Tobi was even _capable_…

Deidara squeaked as his chin was grabbed lightly; as Tobi pulled the blond's head up to face him. His eye took in the teen's appearance, he knew how bad Deidara had been injured, he'd after all intervened during the blond's suicide bomb.

He hadn't been thrilled when Pein had decided that killing Sasuke was ideal, though he had only himself to blame for never saying anything. Then Deidara had demanded to kill the youngest Uchiha… He had tried to persuade the blond's mind but he was adamant, stubborn as always.

They had confronted the kid; he helped Deidara plant a few bombs underground but had mostly watched the fight. When he had figured out Deidara's intentions he had an internal struggle.

Obviously if he did nothing Deidara would die… and Sasuke but he hadn't given the kid a thought at the time. He loved Deidara, had for years. The blond was entrancing, intoxicating, had an attitude which had stayed the same no matter how many people he had killed, he was still petulant, arrogant.

And his passion for his art captivated him. The way his eyes lit up in pure joy as he set off an explosion, the slightly maniac grin that etched onto his features… It hadn't taken him long to realize… that he desired the blond, that he wanted him.

It hadn't been love at first sight, but over the time his 'feelings' grew and he knew one thing for sure, Deidara was _his!_ He, somewhere along the way started referring to Deidara as his and after carefully analyzing he didn't mind; in fact he felt that it suited everything in one word.

When he had finally become Deidara's partner he thought it wouldn't be long before the blond was truly his, but Deidara still despised him; thought him annoying and a pest. In that instant just before the bomb went off he realized that if the blond died he'd never get to have him… and he'd made a hasty decision.

He had used his sharingan and sucked Deidara into his world just in time. Just barely managing to make it out himself, he'd singed his clothes quite good though.

Now staring into the blond's eyes, Tobi didn't feel any regret. But the last thing he needed was for the blond to pull something like this again. The other members may be replaceable but Deidara wasn't… and unfortunately he wouldn't be able to be with the blond twenty-four seven.

Closing his eye briefly he pushed the matter away for later, he could figure something out at another time, "Will you try again?"

At the blond's small hesitation Tobi had his answer, "Why? Do you really hate living so much?"

Deidara glared, what the hell was with everyone? He jerked his head but didn't succeed in freeing from Tobi's grasp.

When the blond remained silent Tobi sighed inaudibly, as he let go of the other's chin. Turning around Tobi murmured quietly, "I'll bring you some food later." Not waiting for a reply, though he knew he wouldn't get one, the masked nin left the room as quietly as he had entered.

Deidara stared confused after his idiotic partner, wondering who Tobi really was. Belatedly realizing he _still_ didn't know how Tobi saved him.

~ End Chapter

Note – I had planned to do the fight with Sasuke but it didn't turn out that way… in the end I scrapped it. Sorry for everyone who wanted the fight… the only real reason I wanted (would have) done it was for the ending; where Tobi had to make his decision. Also I wanted so badly to kill Sasuke but in the end I decided to keep him alive a little longer. But I do want to kill him… hopefully I can make that happen.

** I may go back and add flashbacks of the fight… maybe… I don't really like them…

~ Also I had planned a conversation with Pein and Dei, but by the time I got done with Kisame, Konan and Tobi I was exhausted and just wanted to push things along. Not a big deal to do it… so it was summed up in a few sentences/paragraphs…

Ah, one last thing… I **may** come back and edit some more…

End stupid long note

Posted: 04/18/2012


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

Note – Sorry for the lateness.

And ah this chapter is re-done. I was debating things and put it on hold because I wasn't sure on how I wanted to do things. I decided in much less time than I thought. So here is the new chap 9, not edited. (The first part is edited by JJKMagic, roughly 13 paragraphs)

To anonymous reviewer Hola – No bother at all. I love reviews! So I appreciate you taking the time to leave one. Glad you enjoy it and think its good. : ) Thanks

Hidden Underneath

New Chapter 9 - Revealed

Why?

He'd been asking himself that ever since his chat with Konan and he couldn't come up with an answer. Not one that made sense at any rate.

It'd been a month since he'd recovered… or almost completely. Once he'd been able to walk on his own without any support Pein had summoned him.

Pein had only stopped by once that he knew of to check on him, their conversation had been short. So when he'd been called to Pein's office he knew he'd be getting a lecture, he was right. Pein had practically radiated with anger, the experience had scared Deidara shitless, not that he'd _ever_ admit it.

He could deal with threats but for Pein to be furious at him for nearly dying by his own hand left him lost. In the end he decided to ignore the 'we care' crap that _everyone _was sprouting.

All it did was confuse him and leave him with a killer headache… still that didn't stop him from constantly asking himself _why?_

And to add insult to injury Pein had fucking _sealed_ his chest mouth! _The fucking bastard!_ Nothing on his chest looked different, had the same mark and string as before. It probably only activated if he tried to use his chest mouth. And without knowing what seal it was he had no hope of undoing it. Then again Pein was an expert… where he didn't know squat about sealing.

Deidara shook his head with a frustrated sigh and refocused on the book in his grip. Being cooped up and not being able use his art was driving him crazy. He'd taken to reading about clay sculptors but he could only read it so many times…

Tossing the book to the side Deidara stood a little shakily before slowly walking to his desk. Kakuzu and Konan had said to walk as often as possible; it would certainly prevent his muscles from stiffing up and such.

Just as he went to sit the door opened. Deidara was sure it was Tobi as everyone else knocked as of late. He turned to confirm his belief and sure enough the masked nin entered the room.

Tobi had been… different since the day they'd talked in the small white room after his suicide bomb. The masked nin told him that he was pissed… Deidara was sure that the other was still pissed considering the way he acted.

Sure he was still cheerful and loud but there was a distinct change of tone when he spoke to him. Deidara didn't know how he felt about the idiot practically giving him the silent treatment. Tobi spoke to him but it felt… distant. Or he chose not to say anything. Quite unlike Tobi…

Deidara sighed softly, his eyes falling to the stone floor. He cringed a bit but he definitely missed the old Tobi. Which was stupid because Tobi hadn't_ changed_ that much. Maybe it was just depression…?

"Senpai…"

Deidara jerked at being spoken to, his eyes shooting up only to gasp softly in shock. He came face to mask with Tobi, unnerved Deidara stumbled back. He hadn't even heard the idiot approach, "What, un?" He snapped.

"Why do you hate me?"

Deidara blinked, startled and surprised, Tobi had already asked that… and he had already told the dumbass that he didn't hate him. Annoyance settled on his features, "I don't hmm."

Tobi shifted slightly, but remained still, "You tried to kill yourself. And still want to do it again. It sounds like you hate me…" Tobi tilted his head back, "That you want to get away from me."

Deidara scowled, why the hell did the idiot think his 'trying to kill himself' had _anything_ to do with him? If he wanted to get away from the raven that bad he'd have killed him not himself.

"Idiot." He really didn't want to try to explain it to the moron but if he didn't there was good chance that Tobi would come to him again asking the same thing. And twice was enough. Shifting back, putting space between them, Deidara crossed his arms, "What is my art?"

Tobi's head fell to the side with a light blink, "Explosion?"

Deidara blinked before glaring, "It's not just an 'explosion'!" He scoffed, irritated, Tobi should know _that _by now.

Tobi's arms waved in a clear gesture of peace, "S-sorry Senpai! But you do make explosions and you call it art…"

Deidara closed his eyes, willing down his anger at the art inept idiot. Once calm Deidara stressed, "Art is fleeting."

Tobi nodded slowly, vaguely wondering what Deidara's belief in art had to do with killing himself.

After the nod, Deidara added, "I want to be like me art un."

The masked nin just stood there, still. Deidara expected some kind of reply the instant after he spoke, whether it be a frantic one or a confused one. Yet, unnervingly he was silent.

Taking a few more steps back, Deidara pressed his back into the wall, waiting for Tobi to react.

"You want to be fleeting." Tobi stated a strange quality to his voice.

Deidara nodded, ignoring the other's tone; figuring the idiot was either surprised or a little upset, seeing as Tobi liked him to an extent.

"Right, it's my dream hmm."

Tobi shifted a pace forward, his arms at his sides, clenched into fists. "Dream…? Tobi get's your art is very important to you Senpai, but why would you want to die so soon? To just throw your life away for just a single moment."

Deidara scowled, irritated. It was his dream; Tobi should be able to understand what that means. "It's not 'throwing my life away' un, it's-"

"Senpai." Tobi interrupted, earning a furious glare.

"That is what you would be doing."

Deidara made a small 'tch' sound. Why did he think he could get Tobi to understand?

Tobi shuffled closer, instantly gaining the artists attention, "I don't want you to die… Senpai."

Deidara's eye widened slightly, there was the 'I' instead of Tobi. "Why hmm?" Perhaps Tobi could solve this problem. Give him the answer to the 'we care' crap everyone was displaying.

Tobi felt his finger's twitch, a part of him feeling compelled to tell Deidara his feelings right now, he'd certainly been given a good window but Tobi didn't believe that would help. Or would it? Deidara felt he didn't have anyone, no one who really cared about him, and felt that no one would miss him should he die.

Or at least before everyone started making it clear that they worried about him, that they did care but would Deidara believe that?

"Because you're important to me Senpai. You're… you make me happy."

Deidara blinked, surprised. He made Tobi _happy?_ Wasn't Tobi just happy because he was so carefree?

"So your saying, I shouldn't be fleeting, for you?"

Tobi straightened but was silent, surveying the sculptors face but couldn't glean anything of worth from it.

"N-not exactly, Senpai. If that's what you truly want then maybe someday you can be fleeting. But art isn't the only thing in life." Tobi paused, shifting towards the blond leaning against the wall, till there was only a space between them. "Tobi doesn't ever want you to die. Tobi would be depressed if you did!"

Deidara frowned, momentarily ignoring the fact that the raven was invading his personal space. In other words Tobi did want him to live for his sake. He liked Tobi, but was it enough to live?

He eyed the swirled orange mask, wishing he could see Tobi face. He had never truly cared before but not being able to see the dumbass's expressions at this moment was irritating.

Why did Tobi care? He had for years, since they met. What did Tobi see in him? It was strange to hear someone wanted him around, to not die, and to admit bluntly that they cared. It was a nice feeling…

But his art had been his sole purpose for years; it was his life, his existence. How could he throw his dream away for Tobi? Or even just put it off?

Tobi would be sad if he died… Deidara tried to picture a depressed Tobi, it was hard to imagine since he was always so hyper and carefree. Surly Tobi would get over it…?

Deidara closed his visible eye with a sigh. The thought of Tobi being hurt by his death made him feel uneasy. Was it because he liked Tobi somewhat? Would he be depressed if Tobi died?

He tried to picture what it would be like if the idiot died and he was left to get a new partner. It would be quiet, less frustrating, and weird. He remembered the scare he'd had shortly after he'd woken; worried that Tobi had died in his explosion.

He didn't want a new partner, despite how annoying the masked nin is, he had grown used to it. Things wouldn't be the same if he wasn't around. He didn't want Tobi to die either.

Deidara tilted his head down slightly, his bang jerking forward before stilling. Then Tobi would find it the same.

He supposed he couldn't just leave Tobi, leave him to deal with getting a new partner and the hurt he would feel at his passing. It wouldn't hurt to put off his dream for a while; besides he didn't want to just go out in a bang, just like that. No, it had to be grand, spectacular. And he wanted to use his chest mouth not his everyday explosions. So if he couldn't undo the seal he couldn't go out in a beautiful explosion. So yes, putting his dream on hold wouldn't be so bad.

That was the beauty of dreams; he could find another one to strive towards. What he wasn't sure…

Deidara glanced up at the still, quiet male. Or maybe Tobi could be his dream.

Inwardly he scoffed at how lame that sounded. He was an S-ranked missing nin! Pushing aside the thought Deidara uncrossed his arms, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to wait."

Tobi jolted slightly, surprised and shocked. That was improvement at least.

Deidara opened his mouth but just before he could speak Tobi's black gloved hand gripped his chin, shocking him. His eyes shot upwards from where he'd been trying to burn a hole in the ground, and locked his gaze to the swirled orange mask. A small gasp leaving him at finding the mask moved, revealing pale, smooth skin and Tobi's mouth.

_Holy…_

Tobi's skin! Why was Tobi… the rest of his thought died as Tobi bent forward, his mouth connecting to his. Deidara's eyes went wide as he froze in shock and surprise.

Before Deidara could process the thought of pushing Tobi away the raven pulled back with a lick to the artist's bottom lip.

Red blotched his face no matter how hard he tired to push it down, watching in stupefied shock as Tobi pulled his mask back into place.

Deidara struggled to work his mouth, as Tobi took a step back, as if believing Deidara would throw a bomb at him any minute.

A bomb was thrown but not a real one as Deidara shouted shrilly, "What was that!?"

Tobi cocked his head, giving the impression that the artist's words confused him before simply stating, "A kiss."

Deidara's eye twitched violently, "I know that!" He hissed. "I meant why the hell did you do that un?"

Tobi took another step back, "I already told you, Senpai. You're important to me."

Deidara twitched, his anger increasing as his hands fisted tightly. "I'm a guy!"

Tobi stilled, "So? There's nothing wrong with that."

Deidara couldn't help but gap at that response, most of his anger draining, leaving confusion in its wake. Didn't you only kiss someone you liked? Usually a guy and a girl…

Tobi liked him yet had kissed him but he was male! He… he wasn't gay… then again he'd never given it any thought…

_Important…_

Did that mean Tobi liked him more than that?

Frustrated, Deidara felt like tearing his hair out, he refrained however. He happened to like his long hair and he didn't need to make it even shorter then it is. Not that it was_ that_ short anymore…

Deidara opened his eyes, having closed them in irritation, planning to demand a better answer, only to find the room empty. A stress mark appeared as he twitched; he reclosed his eyes, working on calming himself. The last thing he needed was to blow up the room and getting in trouble with Pein and Kakuzu.

Blowing heavily, Deidara relaxed.

_Dumbass…_

~88

"So Dei-chan anything fun planned for the day?" Kisame asked only mildly curious.

Deidara grunted in reply. He really didn't feel like beating around the bush. Kisame had pestered him several times already about eating. Not the first time but certainly more persistent then he had in the past.

He had woken close to noon to find Tobi gone on a scouting mission with Zetsu, much to his immense relief. He wasn't sure _what _to say to the idiot after being kissed, but also a tad annoyed because he'd have to wait. He had then raided the kitchen for some hot chocolate, his favorite drink. Kisame was rooting through cupboards and the fridge, checking inventory and had asked if he wanted any pancakes. He'd declined and thus Kisame proceeded to pester and lecture him on the importance of eating, as if he wasn't aware…tch.

Kisame sighed quietly but decided he really wasn't in the mood to convince the blond to eat. It wasn't like he'd been having much luck anyways. He refocused his attention to the television that was broadcasting a show about sharks on the discovery channel.

"Surely there's something _better _on hmm? Deidara asked with a mutter. He was sitting a seat over from the shark nin in his usual blue outfit, his hair in his customary pony tail, his hair had grown since his suicide bomb but was still not _quite_ at the same length. He would have returned to his room but all it would serve to do was get him worked up in his thoughts, and besides…

Kisame grinned toothily but didn't bother to answer. If Deidara really didn't want to watch the show he would have either left or grabbed the remote and changed the channel.

Deidara sighed heavily, while crossing his arms across his chest, nibbling his bottom lip in debate. Finally he closed his eyes; he wasn't wearing his scope seeing as how it 'died' in his fight against Sasuke and he had yet to design a new one.

"…Same?"

"Hn?" The mist nin grunted, sounding eerily like Itachi.

Deidara frowned, his brow furrowing. He opened his mouth only to close it again. A furious scowl snapped over his features. Shaking his head in agitation at his inability to _ask_ what he wanted…

Kisame stayed quiet waiting patiently for the blond to speak as his small beady eyes stared fixatedly on the sharks.

Dropping his arms Deidara heaved heavily glaring at the small worn wooden table in front of him. "How close are you and Itachi…un?"

Kisame's head snapped towards the teen in surprise. Deidara didn't often mention Itachi unless it was about him beating him some day or complaining about the Uchiha about something or another.

"Well… were partners." At Deidara's pissed look, Kisame gathered Deidara was being serious. Smirking Kisame amended, "We're… together." It wasn't like it was a secret. Everyone was aware of it… well at least he thought everyone was. Clearly Deidara wasn't. Sure they weren't as _open_ about it but they _had_ been together for years.

Deidara's brow furrowed as he frowned, "Together…?" He glanced at the mist nin in contemplation. "As in…" He trailed off not quite sure _what_ Kisame meant.

Kisame grinned lightly at the blond's naiveté, "As in seeing each other…" At the confused look Kisame elaborated, mildly thinking the kid sure could be dense, "Romantically."

Deidara's eyes widen and he gaped in shock and surprised at the older male who grinned amusedly. After regaining his composure Deidara's eyes fell back to the small wooden table.

"Why do you ask?" Kisame prodded.

Inhaling deeply Deidara debated if it was worth asking _Kisame_ his next question. He hadn't expected that the shark nin and the weasel were in a _relationship_. But this worked…

Running a mouthed, painted hand through his hair he swallowed. "Are the both of you… close?" It was awkward asking such a thing. They were ninjas! Killers. A shinobi wasn't _supposed _to get close to anyone. Wasn't… wasn't _supposed_ to _feel! _ And this _was_ Itachi he was talking about. He wouldn't have thought it possible that Itachi could have the emotions capable to be in a romance relationship with someone.

Kisame regarded the younger male, unsure _why_ the teen was asking such a question. Not seeing the problem with answering even though he really didn't do 'touchy feeling' crap. It was different with Itachi but it wasn't common to talk… mushy stuff. With each other it really wasn't needed.

"Yes. If we weren't then it would be hard to maintain a good relationship." He didn't want to go _too _much into his and Itachi's relationship. But he knew that not talking about it would be cruel after the kid pushed aside his pride and started the conversation.

Deidara's forehead creased. "Do you… love each other un?" He asked, partially tilting his head in the blue skinned male's direction.

Kisame's mouth fell open a tad in stunned surprise. He certainly hadn't anticipated the kid asking _that_. "Yes." He murmured keeping it simple.

At his answer Deidara turned fully to face him, his eyes roving his expression and looking deep into his eyes looking for any sign of lying. Satisfied his eyes fell away and fixed onto the ground in thought.

Kisame raised an eyebrow at the others reaction but decided to wait to see if the teen said anything else. After a few minutes of silence he switched his attention to the tv while leaning back into the old couch.

"How do you know its love?" Deidara whispered quietly almost inaudibly, his hands clenched tightly his eyes narrowed.

Kisame jolted at the softly spoken words, shocked. From his position Kisame couldn't see the artist's expression since his head was titled down and obscuring his view. Vaguely he wondered what this was all about as he ran a hand through his short blue hair. Was it _possible_ that the kid had a crush?

"Well…" Kisame paused briefly, thinking the kid wanted more than 'you just know' or 'love is love'. "It's when you want to be with someone constantly, to take away their pain and keep them happy. …You feel so _happy_, elated to just be _near_ them." Kisame glanced to the ceiling as he tried to define love. "Love is where you don't care if the one you love returns your feelings… it's being able to let them go if that's what they want. Love is the little things as well as the big things…" Kisame sighed as his words died down.

Turning to the still turned away blond he added, "It's hard to explain. When you love someone… truly love someone you just know." If it wasn't for the fact that Deidara never knew his parents, Kisame would have mentioned paternal love as an example. Friend love just wasn't quite good of an example, that and he doubted the kid ever had a close friendship.

Deidara contemplated Kisame's words deeply. _Is that how Tobi feels about me…?_ Or was he simply looking too deep into it?

But Tobi had _kissed_ him… and you didn't just go around kissing just anyone. Tobi liked him that he knew. Tobi said he was important… didn't want him to die, would be sad if he did. So the fact that Tobi kissed him, said that it was more than just liked. It sounded like it was more than liked too.

Say Tobi did love him… it was clear that there was more to Tobi then he first thought. The fact that he could be serious at times and using 'I' instead of Tobi, something he had _always _done before, showed him that he didn't know Tobi as well as he thought he did.

And it was irritating, because if Tobi did love him then clearly he would want to have something in return. Like a relationship, and to have that he'd have to feel the same but how could he when there was so much mystery surrounding the raven.

Or did it not matter? He liked Tobi, and the best way to get to know more about Tobi would be to give him a chance.

Deidara grunted, shaking his head lightly. This was all conjecture, he didn't know if the dumbass really loved him… and until he found out it was pointless to consider things.

"Thanks…" He muttered lowly, belatedly. Kisame had kind of helped… and he was glad that he asked he wouldn't have been able to ask anyone else. Felt somewhat comfortable asking anyone else.

Kisame nodded a small grin flashing across his shark like face, "No prob." As much as he wanted to ask Deidara why he'd ask about such things he thought it would do more harm than good. The kid was still recovering and still upset about his failed attempt. It might push the kid away irreparably and the last thing they needed was for the kid to try to self detonate again. Plus if Dei wanted him to know, he'd tell him.

Kisame shifted around on the in need of new couch before returning to the starting show on the discovery channel.

"Say… Same?"

The quiet question uttered by the blond mildly startled him; he hadn't been expecting any more talking, at least not so soon.

"Yeah Dei?"

Deidara hummed slightly as he relaxed a bit more from the previous conversation. "If I were to cook for a full week, would you be willing to let me bunk with you un just for a few days?" Technically he would cook for everyone since it would only serve to bring him complaints and pestering if he didn't but he'd _get _something out of it.

Kisame frowned startled and surprised. Frankly he hadn't been expecting _that_… He glanced briefly at the teen; Deidara was still angled that he couldn't see his face.

"Sorry Dei, I don't think Itachi will go for that." He sincerely doubted that Dei meant to share with the both of them; therefore Itachi would have stayed in Deidara and Tobi's. And he knew Itachi wouldn't share a room with him just for a week of Deidara's cooking.

"Why not?" Deidara pressed. He'd been hoping Kisame would go for it. He was often complaining about having pancakes too much.

Kisame sighed softy at the kids tone, it sounded like Deidara was really adamant about rooming with him for a while. "I'm sure you aren't planning on Itachi being there. He'd share with Tobi." Kisame stated, wanting to make sure that he wasn't just assuming. At the blonds nod of confirmation, he continued "I doubt Itachi would do it for a week." He paused for a fraction of a second before adding, "In fact I'm certain he wouldn't."

Deidara sighed heavily, "Oh… un." He'd wanted some quiet time and some Tobi free time, and sharing with Kisame was sure to give him that.

Kisame grinned lightly at the shriek from the television before asking airily, "Why?" He was curious but he didn't want to _seem too_ interested. If he pressed, pushed too much it might make the kid clam up.

Deidara grimaced at the simple question, glad that Kisame couldn't see his face. "The dumbass…" He cut off, having to swallow thickly at the sudden rise of emotion; he didn't want Kisame to know about the kiss! He was afraid he'd get laughed at… "He's just driving me insane."

Kisame chuckled, disregarding the pause, thinking nothing of it as he murmured in sympathy, "Ah he's always loud and obnoxious… I can imagine its worse sharing a room with him."

The sound of the television cut through the conversation and Kisame's eyes landed onto the screen just in time to a ferocious tiger tear another animal apart, a rather gruesome sight for civilians but Kisame just grinned. While he wasn't a cannibal like Zetsu it was still fascinating to see how animals behaved and such.

Deidara stared blandly at the screen, giving a side glance at Kisame, noting the shark like smirk on the blue face. Shaking his head lightly he settled back into the couch, crossing his arms to watch the show. He'd rather not go back to his room, the only thing there for him was silence and right now he didn't want that. Being in his room, where Tobi had kissed him just the other day would just penetrate his mind and leave him wanting the solution.

Kisame laughed at a particularly nasty scene, leaving Deidara to sigh.

~88

"Senpai!" Tobi squealed as he burst forth into their shared room. It'd been three days since he had to go on a scouting mission with Zetsu. Three days since he'd gotten to see his blond, though he was a little hesitant seeing as how he'd left Deidara after kissing him and hadn't given the teen much of a satisfactory answer.

He quickly glanced around the room and felt his shoulder slump. The room was empty. "I wonder where Senpai is…?" he muttered quietly.

Closing the door, Tobi shouted with renewed enthusiasm, "Tobi will go ask the others!" and was off to find his first person to pester about Deidara's whereabouts.

~88

Tobi sighed to himself as the door was slammed into his face for the second time that day. He'd first asked Itachi, only to receive a low interested 'hn' from the younger Uchiha and the brown wooden door in his face the next instant. Then he'd moved to the zombie pair, he'd been yelled and cussed at by Hidan for disturbing his ritual and Kakuzu from his money counting, which had then resulted in an argument between the two partners and the door slamming in his face.

Feeling a little annoyed and mildly irritated, Tobi had searched the living room then found Konan, she had stared at him with a bland look before slamming the door in his masked face, which is what he was now staring at.

Closing his eye, he sighed, repressing the urge to bang open the door and reprimand the female, Konan knew better! But judging from the noise slithering through the door, with help of his good hearing he was able to identify that Pein and Konan were _not_ doing paperwork and he really didn't want to _see_ them 'going at it'.

So he turned around and decided to scour the base for his missing blond.

~88

Exiting the base Tobi was hit with a ray of warm sunshine and a soft breeze that ruffled his cloak lightly. He had looked everywhere in the cave that Deidara could possibly be and concluded that the teen was probably outside.

And he had a pretty good idea where the artist would be if he was indeed outside. There was a small, steady stream not too far from the base, and Deidara would often go there to replenish his supply of clay.

So he headed towards the stream's direction, weaving around trees and bushes. After a couple minutes, he was able to pick up the rustling sound of the water. Passing by more trees, he stepped over a worn wooden log and exited the mass of trees and into a small clearing with the stream.

Instantly, his gaze surveyed the area, and in moments settled on a lithe form by the edge of water. Deidara was dressed in his customary blue, with his hair up in his partial pony tail. Elation shot through him at _finally_ finding his blond and he squealed, "Senpai!"

Deidara twitched at the loud shout but made no move to look at his irritating partner.

Tobi bolted over to the sitting blond and quickly took a seat besides the no doubt annoyed teen.

"Senpai?" Tobi asked after a few minutes of silence.

Deidara pointedly ignored him. Maybe Tobi would tell him on his own…

Tobi sighed softly, his shoulders drooping. He fiddled his fingers, turning his attention to the clear blue water.

Seconds ticked by.

A soft breeze blew, the water rustling a tad in response, rocks gleaming at the bottom of the stream.

A few more seconds ticked by…

Deidara twitched and thoroughly annoyed with the silence, whipped around to look at the masked nin, snapping "Why the hell are you so silent hmm?"

Tobi slowly looked away from the water, his lone gaze landing on the annoyed, irritated expression of the blond.

"Senpai's ignoring Tobi…"

Deidara's brow twitched, "And since _when_ has that stopped you from being annoying?"

Tobi shrugged, returning his gaze to the water, missing the angry twitch from the ex-iwa nin.

Closing his eyes, Deidara breath out slowly, calming himself before leveling a bland look to the taller male. When Tobi stayed still and paid him no heed, Deidara bit his lip in debate.

Tobi picked up a small pebble, his thumb lightly rubbing it in a circular motion before flicking it into the water with a small 'plop' sound.

Deidara tore his gaze from the masked nin and looked at the spot where the pebble disappeared. Brushing his bang with irritation before gripping, "How come you've been talking normally un? You never did that before?"

Tobi visibly jolted, a part of him had been hoping Deidara hadn't realized. Ah well it wasn't that big of a deal…

Lowering his head a tad, with a light shrug he answered, "Tobi can… he just prefers not to."

Deidara blinked, startled. All this time he could talk normally, but chose not to!? "So what, you were _deliberately_ trying to be annoying?"

Tobi froze for a moment, before frantically shaking his head, "N-no, not at all Senpai!"

"Then why would you prefer to talk in third person hmm!?" Deidara ground out pissed.

Tobi raised his hands placating, his mask facing Deidara, who was now glaring at him, "I-it's just… Tobi got use to talking in first person, and rather liked it!"

Deidara eyed the idiot with a scrutinizing look before grunting, deciding to put the matter aside for the moment. Turning away with a light frown, his bang blocking Tobi from view, "Why did you kiss me?"

Tobi had been expecting this question. "Because…" Tobi paused, tilting his head back to the stream, "I love you." his voice deepening, darker, and so malevolent sounding that even Pein would have jumped at hearing it.

Deidara's head whipped around so fast he almost gave himself whiplash, he gapped in shock and stunned surprised his eyes wide. His voice was different… Why's his voice different!?

"T-tobi?" Was all Deidara could choke out.

"I love you… Deidara." Tobi reiterated adamantly, this time with quiet conviction, keeping his focus on the water.

Deidara's mouth fell open, the words actually processing this time, mildly stunned not sure how to take or feel at that simple yet not, statement.

He opened his mouth only to close it again, shaking his head in irritation before deciding to focus on the tone change first.

Glaring and ignoring the slight shaking of his fingers, growled, "What the hell? What's with your voice un?"

Was this really Tobi?

Tobi sighed quietly, "How do you feel… Senpai?" for the moment ignoring the teen's hissed question.

Deidara twitched, highly vexed at being ignored, "What do you mean 'How do I feel'?" Though he suspected Tobi was asking if he felt the same… and finding it odd to hear his dubbed name 'Senpai' in such a deep, velvety voice.

At this Tobi turned to face him, and Deidara strained to see in that dark, black hole with as usual no success.

"What do you feel for Tobi? I know you like Tobi but do you feel anything more?" Tobi gazed imploringly into the one visible azure eye.

Deidara frowned, contemplating. His mind going back to Kisame's words, he wanted Tobi alive, to be his happy, idiotic self.

But he didn't think that was love.

Seeing the unsure expression, Tobi leaned slightly forward, a gloved hand bracing himself on the dirt, grassy ground. "What did you feel when I kissed you?"

Deidara's mouth fell open as a small flush worked its way across his cheeks, embarrassed, he dropped his eye from the swirled mask.

What did he feel…

He thought back… he'd been stunned, shocked, very surprised. But knew that wasn't what Tobi was asking. Brow furrowing, he strained to recall…

Had he felt something?

Closing his eye, he focused on that moment, the second Tobi's mouth connected to his, ignoring the fact that the red sheen on his face increased.

It had been small… a strange little tingling feeling and his heart had sped up…

Deidara scowled, trying to will away the red on his cheeks as he opened his eye but refrained from looking back up at the older nin.

Opening his mouth, he paused, shaking his head with irritation. It was too embarrassing!

"Well?" Tobi prodded at the prolonged silence.

Deidara muttered, knowing that if he didn't say Tobi would pester him to know end.

Tobi leaned closer, straining to make out the garbled words, "What?" he questioned with a frown when he couldn't decipher the mumbled words.

Deidara tilted his head down farther, uttering louder while clenching his hands tightly.

"…"

Tobi blinked, before sitting up right.

_A weird feeling._ Well at least that meant something. He turned back to the water.

"My real name isn't Tobi." He closed his eye, hoping he wasn't ruining things.

Deidara's head snapped up, mouth a gape, eyes wide, "What?"

Tobi sighed heavily, not daring to look at Deidara. Not wanting to see his expression. "It's true. And I love you." He paused, picking up a pebble, keeping him occupied, before murmuring, "I never thought I would feel such strong emotions for you…" He paused momentarily as he dropped the pebble on accident before continuing, "Such feelings are not meant for someone such as I… from the Akatsuki's leader."

Deidara's thoughts froze, his mind refusing to process, only deeming it fit to acknowledge one word: 'leader.'

Tobi chuckled at the plain disbelief and stunned shock on the blonds face. "It's true." his curiosity overriding his decision to not look.

"Th-that c-can't be…" Deidara stuttered. But why would Tobi lie about something so serious? How could he? Since Deidara could ask Pein and if Tobi was lying, he'd be in serious trouble.

"Pein works for me, but Konan is aware. It's to stay that way." Tobi ordered sternly. "In fact I'd prefer Pein not to know that you've been informed."

Deidara continued to gap, shock firmly etched onto his face.

Tobi glanced away, picking up his dropped pebble.

Pushing aside his shock Deidara opted to get some answers, "Then why is Pein in charge hmm?" Deidara's brow furrowed at the possible reason, sure Pein was strong, skilled and certainly more than capable for the position but… did that mean that Tobi was s_tronger_ than Pein?

Tobi blinked slowly before answering softly, "To hide my identity. It would not do well to let the world know I'm still alive… not now anyways."

Deidara's mouth thinned, only two others know… so Tobi-

His thoughts derailed sharply, if Tobi was the real leader and an Uchiha did that mean that… was… Tobi was talking differently, acting differently then he always did.

Hide…

Did that mean that Tobi wasn't really _Tobi?_ The thought stung as he closed his eyes.

"…Who are you?" Deidara asked slowly not overly sure he wanted to know.

Tobi titled his head slightly as he regarded the younger male, uttering, "Tobi is Tobi." In his usual childish voice earning a pissed look from Deidara, before continuing, "You know that _Senpai_."

Deidara twitched angrily, seriously tempted to throw a bomb at the other but refrained, he wanted answers.

"That's not what I meant un!" Deidara hissed heatedly his fist clenching tightly. "Why does your voice change!?"

Tobi stared at the furious blond for several moments before sighing softly, swallowing, Tobi steeled his nerves, "My real name is Madara Uchiha. But call me Tobi as it wouldn't due for you to slip up in the company of the others."

Deidara jerked back as the name echoed in his head, _Uchiha!_ Tobi's- he's an Uchiha!

No! That can't be!

"Y-you're lying!" There's no way, Tobi can't be!

"It's true." Tobi murmured.

Deidara slowly relaxed his hands as he turned over the new name. Being an Uchiha that name sounded more like one then 'Tobi.' Forehead creasing Deidara scoffed, before remarking, "And your voice?"

Tobi shifted partially, letting the pebble roll into the water before relenting, "Tobi… is a façade. He isn't real. But he is still a part of me."

Deidara's mouth fell open, stunned shock and pain echoing in his chest, it was constricting.

Not real….

Deidara felt something deep inside of him crack and shatter, _Tobi isn't Tobi. He's Madara… their not the same…_

"W-what?" Was all Deidara could choke out.

Tobi observed the distraught look on the teens face and sighed deeply. He had figured the blond might react like this. Deidara had come to develop _some_ care for Tobi, maybe not love but he definitely liked Tobi. Which is why he hadn't been too thrilled with answering the artist's question but knew it would be beneficial in the long run to be honest. Plus it wasn't something that would be wise to try to hide. He wanted Deidara to return his feelings, hiding things would only come back to bite him.

"Mostly I had developed 'Tobi's personality to appeal to you but you hated the character of 'Tobi' but I had also created 'Tobi' to watch the happenings of the organization from the inside." Tobi elaborated on the identity of 'Tobi' gently.

Deidara stared blankly at the other willing the ravens words to be false. But no matter how long he stared at the orange swirled mask the longer his brain realized that 'Tobi' wasn't about to shout out 'just kidding' in his annoying obnoxious voice.

_Why…_ Deidara thought despairingly. Why is it that when he finally gives someone a chance (even though it was hard not to due to how persistent Tobi is), they turn out to be a fraud? Not to mention a fucking Uchiha!

Deidara's eyes narrowed in hate, how could Tobi just sit there and **lie** to him all these years and then spring it on him!

"I told you… It's because I love you." Tobi's voice interrupted his thoughts. Deidara blinked confused and realized he must have spoken out loud.

_Love…_

Deidara slumped, this had just turned complicated.

A sudden thought occurred to him, how could _Tobi_ be an Uchiha? Itachi wiped them all out, save his younger brother. How had he survived?

Deidara blinked recalling part of their earlier conversation. Madara, he inwardly cringed that would take some getting used to; said he became Tobi to hide his identity… which probably meant that the other wasn't living in the Leaf, so therefore wasn't present during the night of the massacre. Or simply survived and escaped with none the wiser…

Sighing softly Deidara disregarded the thought; he didn't care _how_ he was alive. The fact of the matter was that he _is_ and they were currently stuck as partners.

Still, why should he just believe Tobi?

Deidara shifted, bracing his mouthed hands on the ground, "Prove it un."

Tobi jolted, sweating lightly, knowing full well what Deidara was asking. "Senpai." Using the affectionate term, hoping to persuade the blond, "I don't want you to hate me!" And he was sure that if Deidara saw his sharingan then he would, and he wouldn't give him a chance.

"You're an Uchiha." Deidara hissed, his tone clearly saying that was all the more reason to hate him.

Tobi's breath stilled. _This wasn't going well at all! _He thought in despair. "Why do you hate the sharingan so much?"

Deidara blinked thrown off guard before contemplating the question with a furrowed brow and a frown, and then roared, "Why? Because of Itachi!" His hand fisted, just thinking about that damn weasel, mocking his art, denying it.

He was brought out of his furious thoughts by the stern, adamant words of the raven, "Isn't it the person you should hate for they are the ones who wield and decide how to use the sharingan? So shouldn't you hate Itachi not the sharingan?" 

Deidara twitched, annoyed, why the hell did that make sense!?

He hated Itachi because of his eyes… because of the blasted sharingan. Was it possible he'd been too hasty and hurt that he'd just declared the sharingan the source of his hate. While the eye in general would be an object of his hate it was true that the person who wielded it had the most…

Grudgingly he muttered, "I suppose…"

Tobi's breathe hitched, hope flaring.

"Still…" Deidara continued causing Tobi to feel unease. "I want to see." He had to! To see for himself if Tobi was truly an Uchiha.

Tobi stared at the determined, adamant face and with a shuddering sigh, slowly gripped his mask.

Deidara stilled, his eye intently focused. This would be the first time he's ever see Tobi face…

Tobi shifted the bright orange mask to the side of his head, and slowly opened his closed, visible eye.

Red meeting blue.

Deidara swallowed thickly as he gazed into the deep orb of the sharingan. Tobi's face was pale and white wrapping covered the other eye and thin lines ran under Tobi's visible one. _Well,_ he thought vaguely, _at least he knew for sure that Tobi was really an Uchiha._

Deidara glanced down, fear encompassing him. Tobi said he loved him… if that was truly true as Tobi said it was then the raven wouldn't use the sharingan on him.

Tobi's fingers twitched, ignoring the tightness in his throat, "D-do you hate me?"

Did he…?

Despite how annoying and obnoxious the older nin is, there were times when Tobi would try to cheer him up. When everyone else was giving him a hard time over something Tobi didn't… he followed him around like a leech yet he had never once demined him never once purposely called him names and _meant_ them. And the most prominent was the mess with Sasori; the poison. And ever since becoming partners, while he hadn't been looking Tobi had succeeded in worming his way under his skin.

Tobi was an idiot but he was his idiot…

Was that still true? Tobi was an Uchiha, his real name was Madara and he'd been lied to all this time. But he could see why. If he had found out sooner, years sooner, he would have brushed the other off in an instant. Not even giving him the chance to explain, would have defiantly launched a bomb at the raven.

While he didn't know Madara, he did know Tobi, and Tobi was not like Itachi.

"No…"

Tobi's breath hitched and he tilted slightly in the blond's direction.

Deidara glanced up briefly before glancing to the side, to look at the clear, blue water, "I don't hate you un."

Tobi blinked a few times before a wide grin broke out across his face and he resisted the urge to squeal. Instead he murmured with quiet gratification, "Thank you."

~End chapter

I might make a few tweaks to this later… nothing big. I just don't want to wait posting this, since it's already been so long

Posted: 5/11/2012


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

**Note** – picks up right after the last chapter.

Also Tobi will mostly be referred to as Tobi, easier that way. And I'll usually point out when Madara is speaking (deep, velvety voice or something similar). If he says Senpai, he's usually talking like Tobi (childish, obnoxious). I didn't want to switch between bold font and regular to distinguish who is speaking

Sorry for the wait, because of the rewrite of chapter 9, I had to edit, alter and add things to get everything flowing right and have it progress the way I wanted it.

Edited by: **JJKMagic** – Thanks :)

SadisticPyro – Thanks for the favs/Alert and the review. Glad you're enjoying it so far :)

_Last time_ – Small Summary - Tobi informed Dei of being an Uchiha and the real leader and that he loved him.

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 10 - Dealing

Tobi relaxed, now that the hard part was over, still…

With his mask still planted on the side of his face he glanced at the blond, who had shifted towards the stream, his bang blocking his face from view. Deidara may have said he didn't hate him but that didn't mean he was giving him a chance.

He sighed lightly, as a cool breeze brushed over his formerlly hidden skin; he always had his mask on his face so it was rare for him to get to feel the fresh air. It was a nice feeling…

"So…" Tobi broke the silence, staring at the blond hair as he uttered with none of his hidden hesitancy, "Will you give me a chance?"

Deidara jolted slightly, _give Tobi a chance?_ He couldn't be serious! Tobi was an Uchiha! A freaking Uchiha! He may not hate Tobi but he was _still_ an Uchiha. That and he wasn't even Tobi anymore… if he had then maybe… but he was Madara.

Deidara scowled, his hands clenching tightly, and Madara was the leader! The leader of the blasted organization that he despised, the one he'd been forced to join.

How could he give Madara a chance?

Deidara bit his lip as he shook his head, the entire situation _hadn't_ quite sunk in fully, and the shock hadn't fully registered yet…

He shook his head again and Tobi deflated, "Why not?" his voice holding sadness.

Deidara scoffed, refraining from looking at the other, he didn't want to _see_ those eyes…

"Why do you think?" Swiftly, he stood not waiting for a reply, stomping off.

"Deidara!"

Said male froze at the demanding deep, velvety voice, a chill sliding down his spine.

"Make sure you eat."

Blinking, Deidara cocked his head slightly back, as Tobi informed, "I have to go on another scouting mission with Zetsu."

Deidara frowned, what did that have to do with him eating? Huffing Deidara continued back to the base, leaving a depressed raven behind.

~88

Kisame groaned in mild irritation as he put away the groceries. He'd been the unlucky person to get sent out to buy food. It just wasn't something he enjoyed… any kind of shopping was a pain. Having to deal with people giving him weird, wary looks was the most frustrating thing about shopping, especially since he couldn't kill anyone, if he did Pein would be furious that he pulled a stunt like that.

Shuddering Kisame resumed the task he'd paused briefly when a loud grating noise sounded through the kitchen. Sighing Kisame glanced briefly in the masked nin's direction offering a light, "Hey Tobi."

"Hello Kisame!" Tobi squealed energetically before rushing to one of the bags on the kitchen table and starting to root through it. "Tobi will help!"

Kisame blinked several times while opening his mouth before shaking his head slightly and snapping his mouth shut, thinking better than to tell Tobi not to bother. Hopefully the masked nin would be more helpful than not…

It was just a little to three hours since breakfast, and by the time he finished with getting everything put up it'd be close to lunch time. Kisame grinned slightly at not having to have pancakes again. He'd bought plenty of sandwich meat.

"Not there! The cupboard." Kisame rebuked the raven lightly as he caught sight of the other putting peanut butter into the fridge.

The masked nin froze for a moment before swinging his head around to look at the blue skinned male, "B-but peanut butter is good cold! It's the best that way!"

Kisame frowned in mild disgust, peanut butter was meant to be warm. "The cupboard." He reiterated.

"Aw…" Tobi pouted but did as the other said but couldn't refrain from asking, "Why? Do you not like cold peanut butter?"

Kisame dug through the brown paper bag and pulled out several jars as he frowned in response to the annoying nin, "No and I don't care to."Before opening the cupboard and sliding the jars inside.

Tobi sighed lightly and Kisame heard him mutter something about 'not knowing what he was missing' as he dug through the bag for another item.

Shaking his head Kisame did the same.

For a few minutes everything was silent save for the quiet ruffling of the bags and things being opened.

Tobi opened the fridge and stuffed the bottle of syrup onto the shelf only to have Kisame reach in and grab it with a glare.

Tobi scratched the back of his head sheepishly as he watched the mist nin put the syrup into a cupboard. "Are we having more pancakes for lunch?" Tobi questioned as Kisame pulled out several loafs of bread from one of the bags.

"No." Kisame answered while placing the loafs onto the counter by the toaster before gesturing to the bread as he glanced at the stationary masked nin by the kitchen table, "We're having sandwiches."

Tobi squealed, his arms snapping up towards the ceiling in excitement as he shouted, "Yay! Tobi was getting sick of pancakes!"

Kisame would have glared at the raven if he wasn't feeling the same.

"Tobi will help!" Tobi shouted determinedly.

Kisame whipped around to stare at the overly ecstatic nin with plain horror before uttering quickly with a wave of his hand, "Not necessary, Tobi. I can manage just fine."

"Aw… Tobi really wanted to help…" The masked nin stated sadly, his shoulders drooping in disappointment.

Kisame grunted as he rummaged through the last of the bags, "Why don't you go get, Dei-chan?"

The masked nin visibly jolted at the mention of his Senpai, tilting his head in silent question at the back of Kisame's head.

When Kisame didn't elaborate Tobi shuffled closer as he asked ponderingly, "How is that helping?"

Sighing Kisame turned to look at the raven with a slight frown, "I don't need help making the sandwiches. But maybe Dei-chan will be more willing to eat if it's not pancakes."

Tobi stilled his eye narrowing behind his mask as a small frown etched onto his features but asked cheerily with a touch of concern, "What do you mean? Has Senpai been forgoing eating still?"

Again Kisame sighed as he bunched up the brown paper bags glad that the groceries were all put up with little trouble from Tobi. "Yeah..."

Kisame ran a hand through his short blue hair in frustration and mild irritation, "I swear that everything concerning eating goes in one ear and out the other." He opened the pantry to toss the bags into the trash before leveling his gaze to the unusually silent masked male. He hoped by sending Tobi that he'd annoy Deidara to no end and get him to eat.

Tobi was just as concerned and worried at the blonds' lack of eating and therefore would pester the hell out of the other.

Tobi jolted slightly as if realizing that Kisame was staring at him, he thrusted a fisted arm into the air as he shouted in firm determination, "Tobi will get Senpai to eat!" And not waiting for Kisame to respond, if he were going to Tobi sped from the room, his entire focus on finding Deidara.

~88

Deidara sighed as he flipped the page of his art sculpting book. He'd read it several times in the last few days and he was _bored! _Mostly everyone was out searching for their quote and Kisame constantly badgered him about the importance of eating so he'd taken to alternating between the living room and his room.

He really needed to get more books… Working on his clay was relaxing, he lost himself in it and everything else faded. No thoughts about Tobi, no thoughts about Tobi's declaration… but he'd ended up using the vast majority he'd had and now needed to replenish. But to do so would require leaving the hideout and going to the nearby stream.

Sighing heavily he ran a mouthed hand over his face, he stilled instantly when the door opened. A chill slid down his spine, something telling him it wasn't Kisame.

Tobi entered the room, his eye instantly going to the artist's bed, locking onto the blond sitting with a book in his lap and his head down. His blond hair that rested over half his face hid his features as his head was tilted down.

He quietly made his way over to the other, taking in the tenseness of the other's body and knew the blond was aware it was him. It would seem the teen hadn't quite gotten used to the idea of him being Madara or the leader.

Not that he'd really expected the artist to warm up to him instantly but he felt the teen was taking it a little too hard.

Not once in all the years that they had been aquatinted did he ever do anything hurtful, harmful or cruel to the blond. And while a good part stemmed from finding out that Tobi wasn't real and that he was an Uchiha he knew most of the blond's anxiety and fear rested on the fact that he was the real leader, well and the sharingan.

Sighing inaudibly he came to a stop before the artist on the bed, "You haven't been eating." Tobi stated in his deep, smooth voice forgoing the pleasantries, also holding a hint of displeasure.

Deidara's shoulders hitched slightly, his breathing pausing for a brief instant at the voice. He closed his eyes in sadness and mild anger that it was in fact Tobi. He had hoped the other would be gone longer than a few measly days but seeing as they were now officially partners he supposed that it would not be ideal. No matter what he had told himself about the situation, it had come crashing down and he found himself _scared_.

Tobi had lied to him all these years, was really the true leader and wasn't even Tobi and possessed the sharingan. Despite his initial belief that he wouldn't use it on him, it didn't change the fact that he possessed it and that while he was sure Tobi wouldn't, Madara could… It was all just so confusing, a part of him wanted to bang his head into a wall, and he wasn't quite sure what to think or _feel_.

When the blond remained silent Tobi reached out and gripped the sculptor's chin firmly forcing him to look at him as he demanded, "Senpai." He did not like being ignored and while it was a given to happen as Tobi, Deidara now knew the truth and he would not tolerate it.

Deidara stared fearfully at the swirled orange mask, his throat tight and constricting, his hands gripping his bed sheets tightly enough that his knuckles turned white.

Tobi sighed inwardly at the blatant fear on Deidara's face, a part of him wishing he'd waited in revealing himself. He'd almost lost Deidara, he didn't want to wait around anymore and risk the blond dying either by the artist's own doing or by another. And as much as he had preferred waiting around for the right time, waiting for Deidara to _feel_ something more for Tobi it had been taking too long. But he supposed this was bound to happen no matter when he did it.

Lightly he shook the blond's head watching as Deidara cringed as he stated almost angrily, "I told you to eat. It wasn't a suggestion."

Deidara swallowed tightly but didn't dare try to pull away. He'd told Tobi before why he didn't want to eat and while that hadn't been the full truth it should have occurred to Tobi that just because he told him to eat didn't mean he would.

Just because he was Madara and the real leader didn't mean he was going to do everything the bastard said. Though to be honest he hadn't really given the other's words about eating much thought… even though Kisame had pestered him earlier, which was becoming a constant thing.

Tobi's eye narrowed at the continued silence from the blond, feeling a bit annoyed but reminded himself that yelling at the teen wouldn't help get the other to eat. And he supposed he was being a bit hard on the blond but over the course of the scouting trip, he'd had time to stew over being rejected. And it hurt, left him feeling angry and while he hadn't given up a part of him just couldn't help but be mad at the situation. Though he shouldn't take it out on the blond… that certainly wouldn't help…

"Why didn't you eat?" He asked softly.

Deidara blinked at the change in tone but found himself feeling a little more comfortable and a tad _safer_. He figured telling the masked nin that he hadn't and still wasn't hungry would only anger the other. After all even before he found out the truth, Tobi had been adamant and persistent about him eating.

"Well?" Tobi prodded, not to keen on waiting for an excuse.

Deidara swallowed thickly as he realized the other didn't have the patience or interest in waiting for a lie. Lowering his gaze to the edge of the orange mask he muttered lowly, softly, "F-forgot…" which was _kind _of true…

Tobi's eye narrowed in mild anger and he tightened his hold on the teen's chin ever so causing Deidara to squeak with a flinch. "I _would_ buy that if Kisame hadn't told me he'd been pestering you about it."

Deidara tried in vain to shake his head as his lip began to tremble lightly. He was _not_ going to cry! Surely Tobi wouldn't _hurt_ him… Would he? But this was Madara… not Tobi. Agh… this was all just so frustrating!

Tobi sighed heavily as he noticed the gathering tears in the blond's one visible eye and released his grip from the teen's chin.

Deidara's head fell down slightly as he hadn't been expecting to suddenly be released; he closed his eyes tightly to calm himself, not daring to look at the other if he didn't have to.

"You need to eat." Tobi stated firmly, letting go the blond's reason for neglecting his daily meals.

When the blond remained silent, Tobi reached down and grabbed his left wrist gently yet firmly and pulled. Deidara squeaked softly but allowed Tobi to pull him up from the bed and towards the door. He didn't see any reason to fight it… Tobi was stronger than him and he would still be dragged to where ever the older male was taking him. Though Deidara suspected it was the kitchen, seeing as how the entire conversation had been about his lack of eating.

"We'll just have to fix your eating habits then." Tobi stated over his shoulder with a hum, sending an unpleasant feeling down Deidara's spine.

Tobi pulled the compliant teen out of their shared room and down the hall as he added, "If you don't eat on your own then I'll just force the food down your throat."

Deidara's breath hitched and he bit his lip in mild alarm, how could Tobi possibly pull that off without raising suspicions!? But he supposed the real question was if he really wanted to find out.

Upon entering the kitchen Deidara decided that 'no' he did not want to know.

Tobi dragged him to a seat and he quickly took it sure that Tobi would force him into it otherwise. Once seated Deidara noticed Kisame at the counter making sandwiches, apparently someone went shopping.

"Hey Kisame!" Tobi chirped cheerily, which sickened Deidara. How could the bastard just _act_ like that? Why did Tobi have to be fake?

Kisame glanced over his shoulder at the masked nin with a toothy grin and a nod before going back to making his sandwiches.

The masked male shuffled closer to the mist nin, peering at how many sandwiches there were, earning an amused look from the blue skinned male. "Are you that hungry?" Kisame asked his tone carrying his amusement.

Tobi paused for a moment as if contemplating the other's words before nodding energetically and saying, "And Deidara-senpai needs to eat."

Kisame blinked, his hands stilling over the sandwich as he turned to look behind him, noting the blue eyed teen at the table with a disgruntled, annoyed and mildly pissed expression. His eyes were glued to the table, his left hand propping up his chin. He grinned lightly, glad that Tobi had managed to get the teen into the kitchen and apparently willing to eat something.

Facing forward again Kisame offered, "Go ahead."

Tobi squealed as he snagged two of the made sandwiches and bounded over to the table, taking a seat besides the younger male. He held out one of the sandwiches, curious to see if the blond was going to put up a fight about eating or not. He really didn't want to force Deidara to eat but clearly talking wasn't going to cut it, so therefore if he had to force the other he would. He would not have the teen dying from malnutrition.

Deidara eyed the offered food with distaste before slowly, hesitantly and very grudgingly taking the sandwich. He eyed the insides, noting lunch meat and lettuce… Swallowing and pointedly not looking in the masked nin's direction, he took a bite.

Once the teen began eating Tobi nodded in slight approval before he slid his mask up just enough to uncover his mouth and he too began eating.

~88

Deidara lay in his bed that night curled on his side with his face pressed into his pillow, his hair out of his usual partial pony tail. True to Tobi's words he made sure that he ate every meal. And as much as he didn't want to he didn't want to see what drastic means the masked nin would go to.

Shuddering slightly Deidara wished for the first time that he could rewind time. To the point where he could prevent ever being forced into the Akatsuki and therefore never meeting Tobi.

"Stupid…hmm." He muttered lowly in the quiet of the room. It was a waste of time dwelling on such things. It was impossible to go back in time… he should be focusing on his situation, what to do about it.

Ignoring the others love declaration was impossible; no matter how much he'd prefer not to deal with it. It was weird and left him feeling awkward around the older nin. Then there was the fact that he wasn't just Tobi but the real leader, how was he supposed to _deal_ with that? Did he have to treat Tobi differently when alone? Treat him better?

Deidara scowled into his pillow as anger shot through his veins, no way was he going to treat the bastard differently. It would be simpler to treat him the same as he always did.

…Tobi wouldn't hurt him or something if he didn't, would he? He didn't think so... if Tobi wanted to be treated differently than Deidara was sure he would have said so.

Ultimately it'd be simpler if he just ignored everything and pretended that nothing had changed…

But he could only run for so long… They shared a room, went on missions together. Eventually he'd hit a dead end and there would be no other option but to deal with it, to accept it.

But surely Tobi wouldn't force him into a relationship, if he didn't want one… Tobi had come back from his scouting mission and his tone had scared him… he just didn't know… was it just how Madara always talked?

Tobi said he loved him, if that was truly true then he'd respect that.

Deidara groaned. If the past was anything to go by then he'd believe that Tobi wouldn't force him but he wasn't just Tobi anymore, he was Madara and he didn't know him. Would he abide by his wishes? He hoped so.

Deidara groaned, all this constant back and forth was a pain…

The door opened followed by a small squeal, "Senpai!"

Deidara cringed but ignored the other, hoping Tobi would just think he was asleep. His breath hitched as he felt his blanket shift and the bed dip; clearly Tobi was sleeping in _his_ bed.

_Why?_ Deidara thought despairingly. Tobi had his own bed, why did he have to sleep in his… Apparently Tobi was adamant despite Deidara's earlier rejection.

Deidara felt a hand lightly brush his face before moving some of his hair out of the way, Deidara stayed as still as possible.

"Senpai… I know you're awake." Tobi murmured softly, shifting onto his side.

Deidara's forehead creased, his eyebrow twitching but he remained stubbornly silent, despite how commanding Tobi had been earlier he was partially positive Tobi wouldn't physically hurt him. Not like Sasori… considering how the other had acted when he'd found out.

Tobi sighed softly at Deidara's stubbornness before reaching out and tugging the blond flush against his body. Deidara squeaked startled and mildly shocked as he was enveloped in Tobi's warm arms, his face pressed into the other's shirt. He swallowed thickly keeping his eyes clamped shut, apparently Tobi _wasn't_ going to take no for an answer.

Tobi lightly ran a gloved hand through the long blond hair before trailing down the artist's body. Deidara jolted as he felt Tobi's hand run down his back a little freaked out. It was one thing for Tobi to hug him but this!? No one had ever touched him before… a small, very small part of him thinking Tobi was going to rape him… he had after all rejected him…

And when Tobi came back, it was clear he wasn't overly happy but he'd been pegging that being because he wasn't eating…

However Deidara's fears were unfounded as Tobi rubbed soothing circles into the sculptor's back. Deidara slowly ever so slowly began to relax, huffing lightly into the black shirt Tobi wore.

Once Tobi felt the artist begin to relax he buried his unmasked face into the long blond hair, inhaling the soft scent. Feeling the blond's even breathing signaling that the other was relatively calm now, he murmured gently, "Why can't you give me a chance, Senpai?"

Instantly Deidara went rigid, his hand clenching tightly as he swallowed thickly to rid himself of the knot forming in his throat. Surely Tobi couldn't be that… foolish? He was an Uchiha… He'd thought the reason was obvious…

Tobi continued moving his hand in circular movements and Deidara found himself relaxing again and figured he wouldn't get anywhere if he didn't _try_ to talk things out. It's not as if Tobi being the leader prevented him from voicing his opinions.

Gulping as quietly as he possibly could, Deidara shifted slightly trying to get a little more comfortable, seeing as how he was sure Tobi had no plans of letting him go. Before he uttered almost inaudibly, "B-because… un." He paused trying to find the right words; he didn't want to risk Tobi getting angry. He, after all, was refusing to give the Akatsuki leader a chance.

When the blond took too long to gather what he wanted to say Tobi spoke up, "I love you. I would never do anything to hurt you-" He cut off as he felt the blond jerk against him and it didn't take much for him to know the artist was thinking about the sharingan.

"I want you to love me, Deidara." He said in his deep velvety voice before pressing a light kiss to the blond's head. "You liked Tobi, did you not?" He asked though it was clearly a statement, but Deidara nodded against his chest anyway before he continued, "Tobi and I are the same. We are one and the same. So why can't you give it a try?"

Deidara lay there silently seething; Madara and Tobi were _not the same!_ Madara himself had said Tobi was a façade!

Infuriated Deidara snapped, "No, you're not!" Tobi's hand stilled on his back as he continued, "Tobi would never-" Deidara was cut off as Tobi tangled his hand into his long blond hair and gently yanked his head back, blue meeting red. Deidara gasped lightly, fear gripping him as he stared into those mesmerizing orbs. He may not hate the other for having those blasted orbs but it was still hard to look into those eyes… especially since he didn't know if Madara would refrain from using them on him.

"Yes, we are. Tobi was created, that's true but he became a part of me. So long as I exist so will Tobi." Tobi stated staring deep into azure eyes, seeing the fear. He lightly ran his hand through the long hair in comfort as he murmured with fierce conviction, "I would _never_ use my sharingan on you, Deidara. Never."

Deidara's breath hitched, gaping at the other as he stared into the red eye, seeing the truth of the other's words. But could he really believe him? Madara went around pretending to be someone who wasn't _real__,_ surely he could say something and _not_ mean it? But his eye told him he was being honest and it was difficult for someone's eye to lie…

Could he really believe Madara? So far he'd proved himself… but it also hadn't been long since he'd met Madara… but Tobi had proved himself for years…

Tobi leaned closer to the artist's face as he murmured imploringly, "Well? Can you give it a try?"

Deidara swallowed but did not try to pull away as he frowned, even if Tobi was telling the truth it didn't change the fact that Madara and Tobi were _not_ the same. No matter what the raven said. So how could he possible give this a try? Give a relationship a try with someone who had lied to him? Someone he didn't love… someone who _wasn't_ Tobi?

Seeing the conflicted emotions travel across the teen's face Tobi sighed lightly before closing the scant distance between them and capturing the blond's mouth in a searing yet still gentle kiss.

Deidara gasped, his eyes fluttering as a blush broke out over his features, his hand unconsciously gripping Tobi's shirt tightly.

After a few short seconds Tobi pulled away reluctantly, not wanting to get carried away as he marveled at the blond's blushing face. Deidara was so beautiful and stunning…

As Deidara collected himself Tobi bent down and lightly nibbled on the sculptor's ear earning a shudder from the younger male.

Gasping Deidara closed his eyes and willed away the blush on his face feeling embarrassed… it was humiliating to constantly blush over being _kissed_! He didn't even want it! So why did he have to keep blushing!? Okay so he'd only been kissed twice… but every time he thought about it, he blushed… did that mean he… liked it?

Releasing Deidara's ear Tobi softly uttered in the artist's ear, "In time you will love me to." Deidara obviously felt _something_ otherwise he wouldn't react the way he did when he kissed him. Content that things were looking promisingly he buried his face in the teen's hair and tightened his hold ever so while running his hand through the long hair. For now they'd get some sleep.

Deidara frowned in anger at the other's adamant certainty but refrained from arguing. It would hardly get him anywhere; he squirmed lightly trying to get comfortable. He had little space, it was a bit cramped.

And who knows maybe Tobi was right…

Tobi loosened his hold a bit at the blond's constant squirming enabling the teen to get comfortable. "Good night, Deidara."

Deidara ignored the other as he slowly drifted off…

~End Chapter

Note – I've got a summer math class and have been swapped. I have had only time on Sunday to do any writing, so updates will be slower, unfortunately. My goal is to make it in a month.

I have it written – a lemon is coming up and should be in chap 12 or 13. Unless I decide to merge and make one chapter longer. But either way there will be a lemon.

I like the idea of Deidara and Naruto being related. I was thinking of making them brothers in this story, it wouldn't be a major focus though. My question is, do you think that would ruin the story?

Please, if you care at all about the plot, tell me what you think. Otherwise if I don't get any feedback on the idea I'll have to decide alone…

And if you don't like the idea, it would be nice to know.

Posted: 06/18/2012


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

Thanks to all who left input concerning my question in the last chapter! I haven't completely decided yet but I am leaning more towards making them related.

To anonymous reviewer Mittens 919 – Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review! I very much appreciate it. Ah thanks for leaving ur input concerning my question in the last chap, If I do have then be related, it won't have tremendous focus. I simply needed _something_ for a certain part of the story to work… to flow relatively the way I am thinking of. And it gives me angst…

Sorry for the lateness (Didn't make a month… but math came first)

Not edited

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 11 – Run in with Cloud

An irritating and persistent voice breached his brain and wouldn't go away. Deidara pressed his face into the warm object trying to drift back into his state of dreams only to have his head pulled back and warm lips press against his, a tongue brushed over his bottom lip threatening to enter his mouth. Deidara jolted frantically, his eyes snapping open to lock with red, and realizing that it was Tobi he marginally relaxed.

Tobi stuck his tongue into the artist's mouth attempting to coax the blond to kiss back with little luck. Pulling back Deidara sucked in a gulp of air as he wriggled slightly, the arm under him was numb and was not a pleasant feeling.

Catching his breath Deidara snapped, "What hmm?" He was annoyed at having been woken, he had been having a wonderful dream involving his art and Tobi _just_ had to wake him up. "And stop doing that un." If Tobi kept kissing him… he derailed his thoughts, his face heating up farther; not wanting to start thinking about it so soon in the morning.

Tobi smiled at the annoyed expression, completely ignoring the last sentence, wanting nothing more than to just kiss the blond again… but unfortunately they were running late. "I neglected to inform you last night." Deidara raised a curious and slightly suspicious brow as the other voiced, "We have a mission today and need to get going."

Dread shot through him, his eyes wide as he gaped at the older male. After a few minutes of silence and staring Deidara found his voice, "P-pein never said anything…" Considering Pein didn't know he knew about Tobi it didn't make sense for him not to inform him of a mission.

Tobi chuckled lightly, "It's a simple mission, just a scroll retrieval."

Deidara just stared.

Sighing lightly, Tobi unwound his arms from the blond and stood. "Come on Senpai, up!" The black clad nin stated back in his usual childish obnoxious voice.

Deidara blinked at the tone change and sat up, "I'm going to take a shower!" Tobi paused at the door to the bathroom and glanced back at the teen and cooed, "Want to join me _Senpai?_"

Deidara froze, small trepidation gripping him. He stared at the bed sheets, biting his lip; Tobi couldn't be serious… could he?

Tobi chuckled at the blond's reaction, having not been serious. He was certain the teen wouldn't want to, seeing as how the blond didn't return his feelings just yet, but it certainly didn't _hurt_ to try. After all it could help make things happen.

"Are you sure Senpai? It'd save time." Tobi hummed questioningly.

Deidara remained silent, only tilting his head down a tad, hoping the small blush that had spread over his face was not visible. Just the thought of taking a shower with someone else, made his cheeks burn brighter.

Tobi turned forward with a small sigh as he dropped the subject and entered the bathroom. He hoped the blond wasn't going to keep ignoring him… if he did it would make it hard to get anywhere. Surely the truth didn't affect Deidara too much… he hoped not, he liked their interactions.

Once the door shut Deidara stood and rifled through his drawer, he'd take a shower later when there was time. Dressed he sat on his bed and picked up his brush, running it through his lightly tangled hair.

By the time Tobi exited the bathroom Deidara was completely ready, he had his clay pouches on and the obligatory Akatsuki cloak on.

They entered the kitchen to discover it empty, as Deidara took a seat Tobi went about making a couple sandwiches. Deidara grimaced as he was offered one. Knowing there was no point in refusing; it wouldn't get him anywhere, took it and started to eat.

They left the hideout half past eight, Deidara swallowed this would be their first mission since being informed of Tobi's real identity. He wasn't sure what to expect, it certainly was weird to be partnered to the Akatsuki leader. Though he certainly didn't act like one as Tobi…

He blinked when he realized he had no idea where they were going and what scroll they needed. He bit his lip as he pondered if it was worth breaking into Tobi's chatter to ask.

After an hour of trailing the masked nin, and fed up with the pointless talking growled, "So where are we going un?"

Tobi paused mid word as he titled his head to glance at the annoyed teen slightly behind him. He smirked at the blonds' expression, silently amused it'd taken this long for the younger male to ask.

"It's an isolated village at the edge of cloud." Tobi answered, "The scroll were looking for contains sealing jutsu's."

Deidara raised a brow, more sealing jutsu's? Shrugging Deidara went to continue following the other when the masked nin came to an abrupt stop. Deidara blinked glancing at the nin curiously and mildly wary.

Tobi turned to face the blond, his left hand planted under his chin and his right lightly gripping his left arm. "It would be faster if we traveled on your bird."

Deidara jolted slightly, clearly understanding that it _wasn't_ a suggestion. He could make two but knew that the other would get around it somehow and ride on his; therefore he refrained from arguing about it. Swallowing tightly, angrily, he dug into his clay pouch and created a bird.

Almost shakily Deidara settled on the back of the lively looking bird, willing himself not to panic. Tobi hugged him constantly, having him on the same bird, wasn't that big of a deal. It was just rather infuriating at how demanding Tobi was being; usually it was the other way around.

Tobi hopped on before settling behind the artist, and lightly wrapping his arms around the stiff form, nuzzling his masked face into long blond hair.

"Ready?" Tobi asked needlessly.

Not replaying Deidara had his bird take off. Even if he pushed the other off, he was certain Tobi would just re-attach himself to him, no point in wasting his energy.

~88

Deidara grit his teeth in irritation, as he eyed the three cloud ninja. He was pressed back against a large rock, the three nins each positioned in the only available escape routes. Open area behind them, trees beyond them.

They had arrived at their destination with no troubles, had even less trouble finding the scroll. They had decided to stay the night in a hotel and Deidara had been at his wits end. Dealing with all the touching and the reality that Tobi was no longer _just_ Tobi had been working him up. He'd needed air so he'd taken off from the hotel leaving behind the masked nin, who thankfully didn't chase after him.

He'd been so preoccupied in his thoughts and emotions that he'd failed to realize the presence of others until they struck. He'd avoided all three attacks but backed himself up against a large tock, ultimately disabling several options of attack.

The one in the middle grinned smugly, "It looks like you're trapped, Akatsuki nin."

The two on his sides laughed, matching grins on their faces.

Deidara glared at them, watching them like a hawk. The one in the middle was the tallest with dark hair and matching eyes. A scar ran down his cheek and ruined a part of the allure to his handsome features and he was very pale. The one on the left had brown hair, light coal eyes and was the smallest but also the heaviest. His features were rugged and stern, giving an air of being very experienced his skin was dark. The one on the right had black hair with equally black eyes; a thin scar tore through one eye and a small one from his lip to his chin. His features were deceptively soft as were his eyes. Deidara could tell he was bound to be the cruelest among the three.

The one with dark skin leaned forward with a sneer, "What's such a beautiful female doing in the Akatsuki?" He leered lechery, his eyes roving the thin frame despite the cloak that covered most of the blonds form.

Deidara twitched, his eyes narrowing in pure anger, _how dare he!_ Slowly he reached beneath his cloak.

"Well?" The pudgy looking male sneered.

"It doesn't matter Midori. An Akatsuki is an Akatsuki." The one in the middle intervened earning a small 'tch' from Midori.

The one on the right whipped his hand up from his side and flung a kuni at the stationary blond. Deidara veered slightly to the left, his blue orbs never leaving any of the forms.

"Chick's got _some_ skill." the man who through the kuni grinned sickly. He glanced slightly at his companions his grin widening, "And here I figured she was only good for one thing, if she was in the Akatsuki."

The other two laughed outright at their comrade's words, as Deidara glared murderously at the sick bastards! As the three over confident idiots laughed he kept inching towards his clay pouch. If he could just get some clay he'd have no problems with these disgusting men.

The one in the middle abruptly stopped laughing and shot forward, Deidara's eyes widen, almost missing the other move. The unnamed shinobi shot a fist at Deidara's face, only to be blocked by the other's left hand. Not the least deterred the man swung a leg up and hit the blond in the head.

Deidara stumbled slightly, quickly regaining his balance as the one named Midori popped up in front of him; before he could react he was punched in the chest and slammed back into the rocks. Coughing Deidara inwardly cursed his lack in taijutsu.

Midori charged forward again and Deidara sprung his arm up, blocking the punch and retaliated with a punch, sending the brown haired male back a few paces. The tallest male took the chance to hit Deidara in his side, knocking him to the ground.

Infuriated Deidara shot himself up as the third man attacked from the air with a kick. Gaining some distance, his eyes glued to the three intensely as he tried again to consume some clay in his right hand.

"Yoshio? What do you say we have some _fun_ with her first?"

The tallest male, now named Yoshio, tilted his head slightly towards the man, pondering the question.

"Yeah, lets!" The only unnamed male urged with excitement.

A sick grin etched across Yoshio's face, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt."

Deidara felt uneasiness travel down his spine as he took a quick step back as the three approached simultaneously.

He glared darkly, not about to let some low class ninja rape him, a small distant part of him vaguely wondering if they still would if they found out he was male but brushed it off. He wasn't going to let them get close enough to find out.

As the three nin approached predatorily Deidara managed to slip his hand into his pouch and lick up some clay but before he could mould it the three sprung forward. One knocked his feet out from under him, while another hit him in the chest sending him backwards, he landed on the ground with a small 'ooff'. But before he could do _anything_ the three men had him pinned.

Panic seized him, and shouted out the only thing he could think of, "I'm not a girl!"

All three men paused as they studied the teen pinned under them, each noticing the rather manly voice despite his feminine appearance. Yoshio placed his right hand on the blond's chest only to find it flat. A small dubious frown etched onto his face as he murmured, "I'll be…"

Midori blinked questioningly while the other asked, "She's a he?"

Yoshio nodded earning startled looks from the other two males. Midori stared at the blond silently before grinning, "Well I don't care. He's still beautiful." He glanced up slightly as he asked, "Well guys?"

Yoshio stared at the petrified looking blond and couldn't help but agree with Midori, the teen was stunning, his sparkly azure eyes, his pale yet slightly tanned face and the soft golden blond hair… He'd never met a female that looked so stunning before and this was a male!

Midori turned to the unnamed male as Yoshio got caught up in his thoughts, "Well Masao? What do you say?"

The man now known as Masao grinned evilly as he nodded. Both turned to Yoshio, silently trying to will the other to say yes.

Finally Yoshio locked eyes with Masao and Midori and nodded.

Deidara's breath hitched as they all agreed, and he instantly struggled violently under them, unfortunately he didn't budge them an inch. His panic growing he shouted, "Get off!"

Yoshio smirked as he cupped the blonds' soft chin, while his other hand roamed downwards. "We'll take turns." He uttered to his comrades his eyes staying focused on the blue eyes.

He leaned down his intentions obvious; with wide horrified eyes Deidara flung his head to the side to avoid the unwanted kiss. But was instantly swung back to the other's face by the hand gripping his chin, and before he could attempt something else, lips pressed against his roughly.

Deidara went rigid, shock shooting through him. Someone was kissing him! Someone _other_ than Tobi!

A hand brushed over his lower anatomy and he unintentionally gasped, enabling Yoshio to force his tongue inside. It was _disgusting_… very different from Tobi… He tried to yank his head away as tears gathered in his eyes only gaining mocking chuckles from the two spectators.

A hand worked its way under his cloak and pulled lightly on his pants instantly earning more struggles from the pinned blond.

_NO!_ Deidara shouted frantically in his head.

The hand snuck under his pants and trailed down until it gripped his private organ and swiftly tugged. Deidara gasped into the others mouth as a shudder tore through his body. His eyes clamped shut as he realized he wasn't going to get away.

A sudden yelp and a gasp shot through the air and the sudden weight of the body on top of his left. Slowly Deidara blinked blurry eyes open to see Tobi with his foot pinning Yoshio by the throat.

Immense relief shot through him, his panic ebbing, Tobi… Tobi saved him. He had _never_ been so glad to see the orange wearing idiot then he did right this moment.

Meanwhile Tobi glared murderously at the man under his foot, his sharingan blazing. "How dare you touch him!" He roared pressing farther into the others throat, watching detachedly as he squirmed and jerked trying to get free.

"Release him!" Masao shouted a kuni in his hand while Midori clutched two.

Not even sparing the two a glance Tobi sunk more of his weight into the struggling male, cutting off all of his air. In a matter of moments the nin fell limp, dead.

Tobi glared at the corps with a single thought, _less then he deserved._ Shifting his attention to the remaining two, he lifted his mask just enough to uncover his mouth and quickly made the necessary hand signs for 'the fire jutsu' – katon, giant fire ball. A strong fiery blast shot at the unprepared men and swallowed them up, two shrill shouts echoed before burning them to a crisp.

Dropping his arms after replacing his mask he made his way to his blond who still lay on the ground, his one visible eye staring at the body of Yoshio.

Kneeling Tobi scanned the teens frame, noting no injuries before he scooped the startled teen up who squeaked slightly.

"You should be more careful, Senpai."

Deidara's brow twitched and he gritted his teeth, "Shut up! Hmm." He was _not_ in the mood.

The rest of the way back to the inn was made in silence. Tobi using the time to cool off from seeing someone else defile his blond.

Upon entering their hotel room, Tobi gently placed Deidara onto the bed who turned his face away from the other. Deidara hoped the entire 'incident' would be ignored he really didn't want to talk about it.

"Senpai."

Deidara twitched but remained silent, his left hand gripping the blue comforter.

Tobi reached out and gently, softly touched the teens face, ignoring the cringe he brushed away the blond fringe from Deidara's face revealing his hidden features. He noted the light welt forming on the other's cheek and lightly brushed his thumb over it earning a small wince from the younger male.

"This entire incident could have been avoided if you weren't so horrible at taijutsu." Tobi stated in his deep velvety voice.

Deidara glared, "I don't _need_ taijutsu!" Reaching up with his right hand, he grasped Tobi's arm and flung it away from him only to have Tobi grab his hand with his left. Besides, he was quite decent with taijutsu, he had after all defended himself against those leaf nin while being armless, it was just his stupid fault for getting so worked up in his thoughts and emotions.

"Yes you do. If you don't want another repeat of today's incident then you need to improve your taijutsu."

Deidara tugged on his arm but couldn't free his hand, pissed he shouted, "Let go un!"

"Deidara, listen to me." Tobi spoke a hint of demand in his tone.

When all the blond did was try to yank his arm free Tobi sighed, and grabbed the teen's chin with his other hand, forcing the artist to look at his mask.

"I'll kiss you if you don't calm down." Tobi murmured with a light smirk.

It took a few seconds but Deidara gradually stopped moving, his glaring eyes looking at the bottom of the orange swirled mask.

Tobi nodded lightly, "I know you prefer your art but today's mess showed that you can't just rely on one skill. I won't always be there to intervene. Therefore I will train you in taijutsu."

When the blond looked defiant to his words, he nudged the artist's chin, "What do you think would have happened today if I _hadn't_ shown up."

Deidara grimaced, swallowing tightly. He hadn't been expecting _Tobi_ to show up…

And if Tobi _hadn't_, he'd have… have been _r-raped_… by three different people…

He could still feel the bastard's vile touch!

He locked his jaw and closed his eyes, trying to will away his gathering tears. He would not cry! He was an S ranked missing nin!

Tobi lightly brushed his thumb under the blonds left eye as a tear escaped, wiping away the liquid. Releasing the artist he wrapped his arms around the other pulling him into a tight yet gentle hug.

"It's okay to cry Senpai." Tobi murmured once again speaking childishly, his hand holding the back of the blonds head.

Deidara's lip trembled and he lightly shook his head, he would not cry! Unfortunately something about being hugged broke some resolve deep inside of him, and his tears burst forth. Not caring, Deidara sprung his hands up to clutch at the back of Tobi's Akatsuki cloak as he pressed his face farther into the others shoulder.

If he hadn't been in such an emotional state, he would have remarked on the fact that this was the first time he'd _ever_ hugged Tobi back.

Tobi rubbed the blonds back soothingly as he cried softly, vowing to make sure no one else tired to do what those three cloud nin attempted and almost succeeded in doing today. He would train Deidara in taijutsu; make sure he could take care of himself fully when he had to be on his own. Deidara was his! And he would protect him.

Deidara's tears finally died down but he made no effort to pull away, he didn't want to face Tobi. Ninja weren't _supposed _to cry! And worse he'd cried over something that hadn't happened. And in front of a freaking Uchiha!

But Tobi _was_ warm…

Tobi ran his gloved hand through Deidara's long blond hair soothingly, and even though the teen had quieted down he still held him. It wasn't until the blonds grip went slack that Tobi realized Deidara had fallen asleep.

Smiling softly he shifted so that he could lay down, pulling the younger male with him.

~88

Deidara stumbled back from the force of the punch and collided with a tree. Grunting Deidara glared angrily at the dirt ground trying to even the irregularity of his breathing. It was a shame that he couldn't blow the bastard up… why he wasn't sure but it had never worked in the past so clearly it wouldn't work now. All he'd be doing is wasting his clay.

No matter how much he'd protested Tobi had still forced him into improving his taijutsu. He'd gone so far as to locking himself into their shared bathroom unfortunately the masked nin had picked the lock and end result Deidara found himself dragged out of the base , a fair distance from their current location and to a mostly barren area to train.

Shaking his head to rid himself of his thoughts Deidara growled lowly wanting nothing more than to stay pressed against the tree.

"Come on Senpai! Let's go!" Tobi hummed, a hint of a demand in his voice after the blond didn't retaliate, simply leaning against the tree. He was well aware that the artist was none too pleased with being forced to train, by him no less nor the fact that he wasn't going easy on him but it _was_ for the blonds own good. Someday Deidara would be grateful that he'd improved his taijutsu.

Tobi was certain that Deidara would find himself into a situation where his art alone would not get him out of and would need something else to fall back on, hence taijutsu. Not only would it throw the enemy (s) off, since primarily Deidara would stick to long range, his opponent would try to get him in close then the artist could surprise them by having the ability and being strong in taijutsu. Of course Deidara did know some rock techniques but those alone would not be sufficient enough.

Deidara pushed himself off the tree, debating if it was worth throwing a bomb at the raven as Tobi shifted slightly, a shiver trailing down his spine, he was almost certain that the sharingan was bearing down on him from behind that blasted orange mask. Hiding a grimace Deidara opted to not bother. While Tobi had said he would never use it on him Deidara wasn't so sure, he couldn't bring himself to trust Tobi's word… not after everything, at least when it concerned the sharingan.

Even though Tobi had _saved _him, that alone meant so much, proved so much… He hadn't even made any kind of sexual move; at least he never tried to touch him down _there_. It looked like Tobi had no plans to do anything except kiss him and the occasional touching. He found him believing that Madara could be trusted…

As he approached slowly he kept his gaze on the bottom of the mask, a part of him immensely glad that he couldn't see Tobi's face, and therefore the sharingan, because if he could Deidara doubted he'd be able to concentrate. Then again if he could see it then he might have better luck in landing a _hit_. He could just imagine it was Itachi, that would certainly get him going… more motivated for sure.

It'd been almost a month since Tobi had dragged him out here to improve his taijutsu and not once had he hit the bastard in an actual spar! It was infuriating! Tobi was often correcting his stance, criticizing this or that and at this point he just wanted to punch the bastard! He'd feel even better if he could punch him in the face without the mask, which would take the brunt of the impact. At least he'd gotten over the blasted nightmares he had every once in awhile about the almost rape from those bastard cloud nins.

"Deidara." Tobi demanded in his deep dark voice that was good at sending shivers down the blond's spine.

Scoffing Deidara got into his stance trying to cool his expression, gritting his teeth he shot forward knowing the masked nin would just wait till he attacked.

By the end of the day as light was swallowed up by the night and the stars came out, Deidara was beyond fed up with slamming into the ground and trees. He'd be even sorer by tomorrow…

Tobi sighed as he stared at the blond laying on the ground making no move whatsoever to rise. Perhaps it was time to call it a day. At least the blond was _slightly_ better; he had his stance almost down… The artist would improve more if he'd stop being stubborn and actually _try_ to improve.

The masked nin approached the still blond, who avoided looking in his direction.

"Let's call it a day…" He offered his gloved hand to help the teen up but Deidara only eyed it before huffing and standing without his aid.

Tobi sighed dropping his hand as the blond walked away back towards the hideout. Just as the teen reached a few feet Tobi called out, "There won't be any training tomorrow."

Deidara stopped his eye brow raising as he glanced back at the stationary masked nin.

Tobi crossed his arms, now that he had Deidara's undivided attention he continued, "I have things to see too." He stated in his deep dark voice as he made his way towards his blond. "I suggest you work on your taijutsu by yourself until I get back."

Deidara merely stared at a spot on Tobi's cloak before scoffing; he turned away from the other and continued forward. Though he was mildly curious as to what Tobi had to 'see' to, he didn't care enough to ask. Plus if the other had any intention of telling him he would have done so.

He grinned lightly; at least he had a few days of Tobi free time. His smile slipped when oddly he felt a little upset about that… Shaking his head he scowled and pointedly ignored the thought.

~ End Chapter

Alright I finished my math class and will be out for roughly a month till the fall, (praying that things get finalized…), so with a little more time for the moment, I hope that the next chapter will be out sooner than a month.

**Note** – the lemon will be in chap 14, I miscalculated… I thought of getting it into chap 13 but then it would be 27 pgs long, that's _long._ So sorry to those who didn't want to wait anymore, but if u don't mind such a long chap then I suppose I could put it in chap 13…

Yes Dei is good at Taijutsu; he even says so to Tobi. But I wanted this scene to happen… I did debate having more ninjas than winding down to three and or Dei being without his clay but it was easier to focus on three then a bunch and I had a bit of trouble getting the scene down. Which is why I had Dei mention he was better than that, it also gave me the excuse for him to improve as I don't want him to turn out super powered or something later… It did irritate me to make him seem so bad at taijutsu but at the time I was mostly going 'its fanfiction...'

As for Tobi not killing the ninjas longer and more violent, I am not good with that kind of thing… Which is why I had Tobi say 'less then he deserved'

May come back and do some tweaking… nothing big

Posted: 07/25/2012


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

To anonymous reviewer **Mittens919** – Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review! :) Glad ur enjoying the story so far.

To anonymous reviewer **Mari** – Glad that this story hooked u! This pairing needs more love. I don't plan to quit, updates just may be slow. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, I appreciate it :).

To anonymous reviewer **Kutty** – Thanks for leaving a review, I very much appreciate it! Glad ur enjoying the story so far.

Edited by JJKMagic – Thanks :)

Sorry for the wait. I've had some health issues and lack of motivation didn't help…

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 12 – The Decision

Deidara scowled as he dug the stick into the hard dirt roughly, making a crude looking bird as he sat on a rather flat rock on top of a steep green hill. He was in the middle of nowhere, the Akatsuki hideout; their main one was a fair distance from his current location.

Everyone save for Tobi and Zetsu were at the hideout except Pein and Konan who were in Ame, since Pein was the leader. He often spent most time there and while members were allowed in they usually met at the base since it was extremely close to the village.

He was keeping vigil for not too long ago Pein had sounded the alarm… more accurately Konan had informed them that there was an intruder in Ame. They were to keep an eye out and be ready to head out should it be needed.

Deidara idly wondered who was skilled enough and foolish enough to infiltrate Ame, yet didn't spend a whole lot of time dwelling on it. He was sure once the situation was taken care of he'd find out.

Meanwhile Deidara focused on his situation with Tobi. He liked Tobi but he wasn't Tobi anymore… he was Madara and while he still acted like Tobi it _wasn't_ the same. But Madara hadn't harmed him, showed no signs of planning to… Madara treated him much better then Sasori and even some of the other members. And he ground it down to the fact that Madara 'loved him', as the other had said numerous times.

It clearly showed him that Madara had no intention of raping him. Proving that he wasn't about to go so far. In all the years he had known the other, he had never once mocked his art, had found it fascinating, unlike Itachi… And every time Tobi kissed him… a part of him wanted… felt compelled to kiss back…

So then… it wouldn't hurt…

He ground his stick next to the bird, making a lizard, while his left hand propped his chin up.

A small feeling of relief flooded through him now that he had that squared away. It helped that his almost rape-experience with those cloud nin had showed how truly unpleasant that kind of experience could have been. Tobi cared about him, he wouldn't do such a thing and it proved that those nin had only their pleasure and wants in mind, there was no concern for him.

A light breeze twirled causing his hair to lightly rustle, he groaned lightly as he raised his head to the sky at the gathering clouds. He hoped it wouldn't rain yet… he swirled his attention back to the ground, his visible blue eye focused on the doodles.

And if Tobi kept his word about the sharingan then perhaps there _could_ be something… even though he just wasn't Tobi. It felt… nice to have someone who cared, _really_ cared. When Tobi hugged him after the mess with those cloud nin, he had felt warm, comforted and _safe_…

His musing stalled at the light footsteps that approached, the fact that he could hear the other let him know that it wasn't an enemy nin. He grimaced lightly at letting himself get so deep into his thoughts that he hadn't felt the approach…

He glanced to his left to find Kisame drawing closer to him, his shark skin sword strapped to the back of the obligatory Akatsuki cloak. Deidara raised an eyebrow as Kisame stopped a few paces away, with a bland look.

"The intruder's been taken care of."

Deidara blinked slowly, "Oh." Deidara glanced at his drawings before returning his focus to the blue skinned male, "Pein?"

Kisame nodded lightly, leaving Deidara wondering who it possibly could have been if _Pein_ went to the trouble himself. Sure invading Ame was asking for Pein to swoop in and kill you but surely he wouldn't waste his time when things were so busy? Especially since one of the other members could have handled it…

Just as he opened his mouth to ask, Kisame gave him the answer, "It was Jiraiya."

Deidara's lips thinned, that answered _both_ of his questions. Only Jiraiya would be so daring and foolish to sneak into Ame, and it explained why Pein would handle him. Jiraiya was a Sannin, very strong and very capable; Pein was the best choice to deal with him.

Kisame grinned, showing his sharp teeth as he idly surveyed the rough sketches in the dirt, "One less problem to deal with. The only small irritation is that he managed to send a frog before he died."

Deidara raised a thin eyebrow, dropping his hand from his chin, "Jiraiya was the main concern, un. And despite his contacts now that he's dead I doubt they will be willing to show themselves."

Kisame hummed thoughtfully, crossing his arms, "Someone strong enough to kill Jiraiya… means bad news for them, they'll more than likely stay in hiding. Though it would be nice to get rid of them… but unfortunately we haven't a clue as to who they are." Kisame sighed heavily, his beady eyes closing briefly, "Still who knows what that frog carries, it'll get back to Leaf and they certainly are going to cause us trouble."

Deidara shrugged, surely it couldn't be that damaging? Even if it was, he hardly cared, the Akatsuki's goals were of no interest to him.

Jiraiya was dead… A light maniac grin etched across his face, he would have loved to see _that_ fight. A shame, it would have been interesting and fascinating to see Pein go at it.

"So what are you going to be doing? I haven't seen Tobi in a while, no missions?" Kisame asked curiously and Deidara noted that he didn't particularly seem very interested.

He waved a mouthed hand rather dismissively while giving a small shrug, "Tobi's with Zetsu." At least he thought he was but even if he wasn't it was better that Kisame believed he was. After all why _would _Tobi be doing something on his own? He was an idiot, disaster prone; Pein would never trust him to take care of something unsupervised.

Kisame grunted, scuffing his foot lightly in the dirt, "Itachi's leaving." Seeing Deidara's raised eyebrow he added, "Alone."

"Oh. That's odd hmm." Deidara eyed the other scrutinizing Kisame's expression but could only figure out he seemed a little on edge and a little worried, a frown settled on his face, "Why?"

Kisame shook his head, running his hand through his short blue hair, slightly agitated. Not at Deidara but at Itachi and the entire situation. Lately Itachi had been… distant. Frustratingly so, no matter what he did he was pushed away, and he couldn't fathom _why_? After all these years of being _together__,_ of being close, out of nowhere, Itachi shoves him away, and it concerned him and just a little bit, scared him.

At first he'd put it up to his illness and his blindness getting progressively worse but it just didn't _feel_ like that was it… or at least not all of it.

"I don't know for sure, but I think it's so he can face his brother." Kisame ignored the slight jolt from the artist as he added, "His health has been declining and I think he felt he was running out of time…"

Deidara 'hummed' shortly, "But?"

Kisame closed his eyes, his arms tightening against his chest before opening his eyes and staring intently at Deidara's face, "He's been acting strange. That I believe has nothing to do with his health."

Deidara's brow furrowed, slightly surprised and a bit shocked at the news. He couldn't recall anything odd with the weasel, but he had been busy with Tobi and his thoughts to really notice anything else around him, well of the other members and their doings.

"Maybe he was just nervous about facing his brother again hmm." Deidara offered, willing himself to ignore the anger at the fact that Sasuke had survived his explosion. His fist clenched tightly, the one not holding the stick as he vowed that someday he'd kill him. Or better yet Itachi and Sasuke would kill each other. And as much as he would prefer killing them with his art and proving its superiority he just wanted them dead at this point.

"Maybe…" Kisame mumbled not sounding like he believed that at all.

"If not that, then what do you think it is?" Deidara asked, his sharp blue gaze boring into the shark like face intently.

Kisame shook his head mildly, frowning down at the earth grumbling, "Have no idea. But I have an unsettling feeling…"

Deidara leaned back slightly against the rock, his bang falling away from his face a little, before sighing heavily.

"And you? You're just going to stay here un?" Deidara questioned, switching to a different topic. He really didn't want to talk about Itachi.

Kisame stared blankly at the artist while shrugging, not the least bit surprised at the change, but a tad annoyed. He hadn't believed that Deidara would know anything about it when he spent more time with the raven compared to everyone else, so if _he_ didn't know why would Dei?

Kisame opened his mouth but closed it as a chill swept down his spine; quite certain Deidara had felt it too. Both nin's turned sharply to the left, eyes landing on the customary Akatsuki cloak before spiky orange hair came into view.

Kisame and Deidara blinked rapidly in surprise and mild shock at Pein's sudden arrival. Both thinking the same thing, _Why isn't he in Ame?_

Pein's Rinnegan eyes bore into the two missing nin for a moment before setting their gaze on Kisame. "Find Itachi."

Kisame blinked in bewilderment while Deidara raised a blond eye brow, as Pein added, "Accompany him."

"Hai." Kisame murmured. Itachi had stated he'd wanted to go alone yet Pein was telling him to go with Itachi, obviously he had to do what Pein wanted but it struck him as odd. If Itachi was going to fight Sasuke and he _clearly_ wouldn't be helping why did he have to go?

But it was best to not question Pein, it usually never yielded results other than angering or annoying the orange haired male, in fact Dei would probably have better luck in getting a response seeing as Pein had a soft spot for the kid. However it really was no major concern, Dei obviously wasn't going to even ask.

Pein nodded emotionlessly, his face impassive as always as he glanced at Deidara, his rinnegan eyes boring into Deidara, leaving the blond feeling exceedingly uncomfortable. "I'll be leaving for Leaf shortly."

Deidara just nodded lightly even though Pein was _stating,_ not asking anything. Kisame grinned lightly as he glanced at Deidara with an odd fleeting look that was missed seeing as the artist was looking solely at Pein.

"Tobi and Zetsu will be back shortly." Pein informed them both, but clearly telling Deidara. He turned around his back facing the two nin, took a step and vanished.

Both missing nin blinked at Pein's abrupt exit but were not surprised. Kisame dropped his arms to his sides, leveling an unreadable look at the sitting blond, "Looks like it's that time."

Deidara glanced up at him, having dropped his eyes to the ground, and 'hummed' lightly, his hand gripping the stick a little.

Kisame sighed, just as thunder broke out swallowing up his small sigh causing the mist nin to gaze imploringly at the dark clouds. Within moments the two were drenched in a heavy rain.

Deidara 'tch'-ed lightly in irritation only to receive a quick amused grin from Kisame before the shark nin stated cheerily, "See you later, Dei-chan!" Not waiting for a response Kisame turned and headed back the way he had come.

Deidara returned his gaze to his slowly disappearing doodles, while dropping the rather thick stick; resting his arms on his legs.

With Itachi and Kisame leaving, that would no doubt result in one of their deaths or Sasuke's and with Pein heading to Leaf only one thought was left, _Why him? Why did Tobi love him?_

He sighed heavily as he lifted his head to gaze at the dark, dreary sky, his wet bang sticking irritatingly to his face as he whispered, "Why?"

A resounding bang followed his quiet question as thunder lit up the sky before flickering out and darkness resumed, leaving only the sound of rain.

~ 88 (Almost a week later)

It was quiet in the dark, dreary cave, only the soft breathing of the young male resounded lightly in the decently sized cave.

Tobi silently studied the injured teen, leaning back against the hard rough wall with his arms crossed. Sasuke had been severely drained and injured from his fight with Itachi, a part of him was glad the kid had survived and the other a little pissed. He had not forgiven the young Uchiha for what he did to Deidara and as much as he would _love_ to kill Sasuke, he served a better purpose alive.

That didn't mean that he couldn't dispose of the other at the end… or-

A malevolent grin spread across his hidden face, he could have some fun with the kid, hurt him… almost break him, leaving just a thread. He did need him functioning…

He uncrossed his arms as Sasuke started shifting slightly, his eyelids fluttering, signaling his approaching wakefulness. He pushed off the wall, his malicious smirk growing a tad, watching as the younger male sat up confused despite his emotionless expression.

_This will be enjoyable._ He thought as he stepped into sight.

~88 (Small skip – few days)

Deidara stood up from the coach in the Akatsuki living room in annoyance, _nothing_ was on! The only other members here were Kakuzu and Hidan, they had been arguing, shouting earlier before locking themselves in their room for a make up session. Something he would rather _not _think about…

He shook his head, before whisking his bang out of his eye, lightly reminding himself to put on his head band. He had gotten a thick strand of material in place of his Iwa headband that he had lost in his fight against Sasuke to help hold his hair in place; he just tended to misplace it…

He sighed lightly, closing his eyes, planning to have some hot chocolate, hoping it would help his tiredness. Ever since Tobi left, he'd been unable to sleep and after giving it quite a bit of thought Deidara had concluded it was to the fact that he was missing the extra body heat and the safe feeling he felt when wrapped in Tobi's warm arms.

It was infuriating that he had gotten so used to it that it prevented him from sleeping alone and that despite a part of him that just wanted the dumbass back. He had decided that Tobi was Madara but still somewhat Tobi. After all Madara spent _years_ acting like Tobi, so in a way it was as if Tobi was real. And he _liked_… cared about Tobi, and decided that he could at least give Madara a chance. It wouldn't hurt…

After all Tobi had always… always been, well Tobi, the fact that Madara was in the equation now just meant that there was more to Tobi… it was just a new side to get to know.

Straightening with a loose sigh Deidara went to step forward only to freeze, his eyes snapping open as strong arms wrapped around him pulling him against a warm defined body. A masked face nuzzled into long blond hair murmuring softly with elation tingeing his voice, "Hey Senpai!"

Deidara relaxed lightly at the familiar voice, ignoring the skip his heart did, 'humming' slightly in acknowledgement.

Tobi tightened his hold mildly, possessively before asking in his deep velvety voice, "Have you been training?"

Deidara swallowed tightly, a feeling of dread welling up as he realized that he'd not done so, he had written the others words of in his anger and had rationalized that 'so what if he didn't?' Tobi wouldn't hurt him… couldn't force him while he was gone…

But now that he was back Deidara was mentally whacking himself, wishing he had at least done _some_… He idly thought of lying but quickly dismissed the idea as Tobi could ask one of the others or would no doubt see through his lying. Biting his lip almost hard enough to pierce the skin, he voiced in the strongest, firm voice he could, "No…" He was _not _going to be a wuss around Tobi, so what if he _was_ the leader? He wasn't going to let the other boss him around, he was an S-rank missing nin! And besides_ technically_ Pein was still the leader.

Tobi's eye narrowed, a light frown taking his grin, well he wasn't _that_ surprised, he had been expecting the blond to defy him despite a part of him being sure the blond would, after the incident, where he dragged the teen to the kitchen, promising him to force the food down his throat if he didn't eat.

"And why not?" He demanded sharply.

Deidara winced silently at the tone but answered albeit a little hesitantly, "I just… forgot un." which _was_ mostly true.

"Forgot?" Tobi reiterated, his tone disbelieving, before stating, "And you also happened to forget to eat too, right?"

Deidara nodded quickly, not trusting his voice at the moment while briefly thinking that Tobi was making it too much of a big deal, if he cared that much about his improvement in taijutsu then they could get back at it now that he was back. And he _may _have forgone some of his meals but Kisame could testify that he ate at least once…

Tobi closed his eye, feeling anger creep into him at the lie, his arms tightening farther around the thin frame feeling the teen tense, obviously feeling uncomfortable, but remained still. It looked like he'd just have to make time for it where he could…

He loosed his hold so that he could turn the blond around and lightly but firmly gripped the artist's chin as he growled out, "Do not lie to me."

Deidara felt a chill travel down his spine and he swallowed tightly but nodded slightly, his gaze fixed to the bottom of the swirled orange mask.

Tobi scrutinized the blond for several moments noting the dark ring under the one visible blue eye before releasing the sculptor's chin, grabbing his left hand instead and tugged the other out of the room.

Deidara's breath hitched, for a brief ephemeral moment feeling afraid but then reminding himself that Tobi… Madara wouldn't hurt him since despite everything in the past. He was banking on it, if Madara did hurt him then there was no way he could give the other a chance…

But it was a stupid fear, he knew that Tobi wouldn't harm him, and despite how demanding Madara was, he was still partly Tobi, as Madara had said numerous times. Which therefore meant Madara wouldn't hurt him either.

Entering their shared room Tobi settled on Deidara's bed pulling the blond with him, forcing the other in front of him, his back pressed against Tobi's chest. He wrapped his arms around the teen possessively, laying his chin on the blue clad shoulder.

Silence stretched and Deidara found himself gradually relaxing, his eyes closing a little as the warmth began to slither into him.

"Why haven't you been sleeping?" Tobi asked softly, in his childish obnoxious voice but severely toned down.

Surprise flittered through Deidara, his eyes opening fully, staring at the white wall across from him. Tobi _noticed_… He bit his lip unsure of what to say, he _really_ didn't want to tell the other the truth, just the thought of doing so caused him to feel embarrassed.

Deidara shook his head in a dismissive manner, hoping Tobi wouldn't pry, so what if he hadn't been sleeping?

"Deidara."

Said male cringed lightly, of _course_ Tobi would pry, how stupid of him to think otherwise. His eyes slid shut as his right mouthed hand gripped his blue pants tightly.

As the blond was debating on what to say Tobi unwound his arms, moving them down lightly and entangling his hands with Deidara's; who visibly startled but made no comment nor attempt to pull free.

"Well?" Tobi asked softly once again back in his childish voice.

Deidara's forehead creased, as he muttered, "Just… couldn't hmm." Which was in a way true… he stared blankly at their entwined hands feeling a strange bubbling feeling rise in his chest. Was this what it felt like…? Was this… _love?_

Tobi exhaled softly but let it go for the moment, he had heard a bit of truth in the blond's voice and Deidara was relaxed, if he'd been lying he would have more than likely tensed.

Dropping the subject Tobi moved on, deciding that if the insomnia persisted then he'd pull it out of the blond.

"Itachi's dead." Tobi informed detachedly in his deep dark voice, feeling the artist jolt in shock and he gripped a little tighter to the mouthed hands.

Deidara felt his jaw drop, denial sweeping through him, but then recalled how bad his health was and calmed and asked roughly, tightly, "Sasuke?"

"His doing." Tobi answered feeling the blond go rigid as he added, "He's alive for now." A malevolent grin etched across his face as he recalled what had transpired the moment the raven awoke. His reminiscence was derailed at the sharp biting tone from the younger male.

"For now?" Deidara glared heatedly as he unconsciously tightened his hands, gripping Tobi's.

Tobi stared at the artist's hands around his as he murmured gently, "Yes, at the moment he is useful. When that ceases to be he will be killed."

Deidara marginally calmed at the promise, before blinking as he noted he was gripping Tobi's hands, his face flushed darkly and he relaxed his grip, earning a light chuckle from the masked nin.

A thought struck him, he bit his lip in debate, wondering if it was worth to ask but then decided he was far too curious not to.

"Kisame said Itachi was acting strange… un." At the last second he changed his words.

Tobi blinked, mildly surprised at the blond's boldness, it would seem the teen had become more comfortable around him. He hadn't even tried to wiggle free from his hold or demand to be let go, a light grin formed, things were looking promising. He turned his attention to the statement and decided it wouldn't be a big deal to tell Deidara.

"That's because Itachi was a spy for the Leaf."

Deidara froze, his eyes wide, as he choked out in a slightly high voice, "What!? Since when un!?"

"Since he joined. Neither Pein or myself were sure until recently, if he had survived against Sasuke we would have killed him." Tobi murmured in distaste. It irritated him that he hadn't known all these years, that Itachi had duped him for so long. What really grinded him was the fact that he'd trained the second oldest Uchiha and even told him a few things that no one to date even knew about.

Deidara felt rage rise up; threatening to burst as he gripped Tobi's gloved hands again. All this time!? All these years he was a spy!? It boggled his mind and brought out such hatred for the weasel that he hadn't felt since his loss to him. Itachi had looked down on him, on his art and he had the nerve to do so while he was a spy? He really wanted to throw a bomb in his face… sadly he couldn't do that now, though probably for the better as he knew he wouldn't end it there.

He closed his eyes and wondered vaguely how Kisame must feel.

"However the others don't need to know. All they need to know is that Sasuke killed him, that's it." Tobi informed. A small silence ensued before the raven added "Technically, Itachi's disease is what killed him. But it doesn't really matter. The end result is Itachi's dead."

Deidara blinked startled before frowning, Kisame at least deserved to know but perhaps it would be easier for him not to know that Itachi was a spy… He nodded lightly, signaling he wouldn't say a word before loosening his grip on Tobi's hands.

Tobi released Deidara's hands, snaking his right hand up to grip the sculptors chin and gently turned the other's head so that he was facing him. He leaned down; his gaze locking with Deidara's before capturing the artist's mouth gently. He tangled his free hand into the long blond hair as he ran his tongue across Deidara's bottom lip, silently asking for admittance.

Deidara's hands clenched into fists tightly, a part of him demanding to… wanting to kiss back and the other telling him not to give in, if he did he would be forgiving the other entirely and he shouldn't! But… he'd gone over this, a lot…

The lies, the sharingan, being the real leader… but…

_Love…_

Tobi didn't just say it; he meant it, _had_ proved it all these years… and had saved him from being raped, when he was incapable of getting out of it on his own. Tobi had saved him when he had really needed it…

How could he not give the other a chance?

He clamped his eyes shut and in a move that stunned him for a fraction of a second, he parted his lips, Tobi's tongue slipping through gliding over his tongue before trailing over his teeth and gums exploringly. Deidara pushed down the moan threatening to rise as his hands rose slightly, slowly before fisting tightly into the dark material of the taller male's cloak. Then he hesitantly kissed back.

Tobi froze for an instant, shock and disbelief shooting through him before deepening the kiss while pulling the artist closer, their chests almost touching.

Deidara was surprised at the difference… his brow furrowed and just as he acknowledged the fact that he needed air his mouth was released, a thin strand of saliva connecting them. He kept his eyes closed, a little hesitant to face Tobi, feeling exceedingly uncomfortable; a heavy flush coating his cheeks.

Tobi rubbed his thumb over the lower portion of Deidara's cheek, tilting his head to the side in contemplation and silent question despite the fact that the artist had his eyes closed.

"So does this mean you're giving me a chance?" Tobi asked ponderingly in his deep velvety voice. He figured the teen was since he'd kissed back but he'd rather hear it from Deidara.

Deidara swallowed inaudibly, his forehead creasing but realized that yes, he was giving the usually masked nin a chance, the second he'd kissed back confirmed that. He nodded slowly; keeping his eyes closed but severely tempted to peek to see what Tobi was thinking.

Tobi regarded the blond with an unreadable look for a few moments heavily filled with silence before elation shot through him and a brilliant grin broke across his face. He bent down claiming his blond's lips again in a chaste but meaningful kiss before pulling away, "Good."

He reached down with his hands and grasped the artist's wrists fisted in his shirt and gently but firmly pulled them away before pulling the blond into his lap earning a small squeak from the younger male and recaptured the other's mouth in a searing kiss.

Deidara made a small unidentifiable noise before kissing back, concentrating on moving his mouth against the other's. Tobi wrapped his arms possessively around the thin frame, never wanting to let go of his blond again.

Deidara squirmed slightly, mildly uncomfortable, as Tobi released his mouth and buried his face into the artist's neck. Deidara swallowed thickly once his breathing was under control, despite everything he was still uncomfortable and uncertain, he'd never been in a relationship before… he didn't know how to act, and what to do.

Tobi ran his right hand soothingly through Deidara's long hair before asking softly yet with a hint of a demand, "Why?" He wanted to know what made the blond change his mind.

Deidara bit his lip, knowing fully what Tobi was asking. Why indeed… He didn't want to talk about it, but that was required in a relationship…

Lightly he worked his hands to the edge of Tobi's shirt and gripped it; his face pressed just above the other's shoulder.

"Because…"

Deidara scowled as he fought internally for what he wanted to say and how to say it. It was an amazing feeling having someone care for him, to love him. All his life he'd been alone, isolated, and the comfort and security Tobi offered was haven, having had a taste of it he couldn't just go back to the emptiness, to his art being the sole bright thing in his world.

But how to say that in simple terms? And without feeling like he was baring his soul? Because feeling vulnerable was not enjoyable… yet this was _Tobi_, so saying a few meaningful words should be a cake walk…

He pressed his face down hiding, loving the feel of Tobi's hand sliding through his hair, it was relaxing.

Tobi waited patiently for the blond to gather his words, intensely relishing this moment, some part of him had never quite believed that Deidara would give him a chance, what with all the lies and being an Uchiha. Yet another part, a larger one, truly believed that this would come, truly believed that Deidara would return his feelings and while he was certain that the blond _didn't_ quite love him just yet, it was close. All he had to do was wait and in time, a small amount of time compared to all the years of waiting, Deidara _would_ love him in return.

He could almost _see_ the end of the very long stretch that he had been traveling to this point, it was nearly in reach and his happiness was so grand, so stellar that he had never felt this strongly in his entire long life, it left him feeling like he should grin like an idiot for days.

It was such an overpowering feeling, one that he never wanted to loose, which brought him to a problem he'd been having since the blond's suicide attempt. One he had yet to formulate a plan for, a plan to keep Deidara with him always, forever but this feeling helped strengthen his desire and determination to find a solution.

Deidara was his and he never wanted him to leave him, never wanted the blond to die.

"I-" He was brought back to the present at the softly, almost inaudible words from his blond and he focused intently as he wanted to hear the other's answer. He _would find _the solution… but not at this moment.

"You…" Deidara inwardly berated himself but it was _so_ uncomfortable to be saying this… but he would because he _wasn't_ a wuss! Closing his eyes, he breathed out slowly, calming himself, willing down his nerves before continuing, "You proved it…"

Tobi had proved his devotion for years and his love since he'd become aware of it by being gentle and comforting and _safe_. He hadn't taken advantage of him… and Deidara was finally quite certain that Tobi never would.

Tobi raised his eyebrow, his arm tightening a little around the smaller male, pondering the words. He had proved something to Deidara and considering the conversation… he concluded it had to do with his love for the blond. He frowned lightly, his hand stilling in long hair. He had proved his devotion and love… while he wasn't overly sure _how_ he figured it didn't really matter.

"I see." And for the most part he did. He pulled away from the teen's neck, and maneuvered them both to the mattress, lying on their sides.

"We should get some sleep, Senpai." Tobi murmured softly, hiding his small worry over the fact that Deidara hadn't been sleeping while he'd been gone and as much as he wanted to know he'd wait. Deidara needed sleep and it had already been put off for their conversation, no sense in delaying it any longer, making Deidara wait even more.

Deidara's brow furrowed as Tobi's arms drew tighter around him, but he couldn't deny the fact that he was exceedingly tired and Tobi was here and _warm_, and this was what he had been aching for since Tobi had left. And now that he was back, he wasn't going to waste this opportunity. He snuggled closer into that warmth and with a small smile he drifted off for the first time in days.

~ End Chapter 12

I _so_ wanted to do the fight between Pein and Jiraiya (I would have done it relatively different than the anime) but I felt that it wouldn't quite go with the way I wanted it. As I wanted a scene that was taking place while the fight happened, which was Dei and Kisame.

I've already started the next chapter. But I've also got school now. So I will have less time to write but I will try to stick close to a month on updates. Though… I don't believe I'll manage that…

Posted: 08/28/2012


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

To anonymous reviewer **Mittens919 **– Thanks so much for the review! Pein – maybe… Despite the fact that I am using the Shippuden timeline doesn't mean everything will happen the same. Mostly if I don't put it in, it means that it happened exactly like the anime. If I skip over something, I'll point out changes at some point.

Edited by JJKMagic – Thanks :)

Note – I have been informed of a re-used name, which was used back in the sixth chap. Well their names were reversed…

Souta Takumi in this chapter has been re-named to 'Shin Takashi.'

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 13 – Dealing with the idiotic

Tobi pressed his un-masked face into the golden hair, inhaling the faint sent, as the blond slept, his arms holding the other possessively.

He had slept like this before, yet it felt different now that Deidara was lying here willingly. A small genuine grin appeared at the thought. Just thinking about the night before, made his ecstatic feelings rise, almost overwhelmingly.

It left him aching, a part of him wanting… _needing_ to feel his blond… but knew that doing anything right now might cause harm, he would wait till the blond was ready for it, wanted to do it just as much as he or almost as much.

Deidara shifted slightly in his sleep, pressing his face farther into the well defined chest, blissfully unaware of the widening grin of the raven that held him.

Tobi closed his eye, feeling that his goal… one of his goals was almost achieved. Now that things with Deidara were almost set in stone, he could focus fully on the one goal he'd been working on for years; collecting the tailed beasts.

And hopefully in the next few days they would have the nine-tails. Pein would be leaving for Leaf very soon, if he hadn't already done so. Things should go according to plan, despite how well the blond jinchuuriki was developing, there was no way a sixteen year old would beat Pein, even if he did possess a lot of chakra and access to the Kyuubi's chakra.

And while Pein dealt with the Leaf, he could devote his time to finding Kabuto… Something inside him told him that it would be unwise not to kill Orochimaru's former right hand man, especially since he mutated… he could be trouble…

As Tobi was making plans, Deidara's eyes opened. Instead of seeing something of color, instant darkness was the first thing the artist saw. It took a few moments for Deidara to recall the previous night's events. He realized that his face was pressed into Tobi's dark shirt and that was why he couldn't see.

A thin slice of nerves trailed down his spine, after saying he was giving Tobi a chance it made him rather hesitant to face the other. He didn't know how to act… it made him feel awkward, and Tobi was so confident…

He didn't want to make a fool of himself… or do something embarrassing… Sighing, Deidara closed his eyes, he wasn't going to move right now if he didn't have to. He was warm and comfortable.

Tobi ran a hand through Deidara's long slightly tangled hair when he felt the blond's breathing change, and knew that the other was awake. When Deidara didn't move he murmured softly, "Sleep well?"

"Hmm." Deidara uttered. Tobi's hand was relaxing… He hadn't slept that good in days.

"We'll be leaving soon."

Deidara blinked, but not overly surprised. In Akatsuki, one was constantly busy and there wasn't a whole lot of down time, and certainly not now with everyone going after their quote.

"You just got back…" Deidara muttered, a frown situated on his face. He certainly was _not_ pouting… besides Tobi said 'we', so they'd both be going… together.

"I know… I wanted to see you. And what we'll be doing is something you can help with," Tobi voiced in his velvety tone, his gloved fingers now moving smoothly through the long hair.

Deidara shifted slightly, bringing his arm up a little so that he could grip part of Tobi's dark shirt, while ignoring the way Tobi phrased his sentence that it sounded like he was being insulted…

"Oh?" Deidara hummed.

"There's some intel I want to look into… our goal is to find Kabuto and kill him. Despite the fact that Orochimaru is dead, it would be unwise to leave him alive."

Deidara blinked, ignoring his seething anger at the mention of the snake bastard as he tilted his head back to look at the pale face. It was really something to see Tobi's face after all the years of seeing just an orange swirled mask. It was odd yet made him feel glad that Tobi allowed him to see. His fingers twitched, part of him wanting to touch… to _feel _Tobi's skin.

"But… Kabuto's just a spy…" Deidara trailed off uncertainly when Tobi hummed lightly.

"True, but he was… is devoted to Orochimaru and even though he is dead, one of Orochimaru's goal's was to get back at the Akatsuki. It can be certain that Kabuto will aim to hurt the Akatsuki in some way, especially since he mutated."

Deidara's eyes widened, his mouth falling open, _mutated?_ That was news to him…

"He experimented on himself… un?" Deidara asked in slight shock and disgust.

Tobi blinked, and realized that Pein had never informed the other members, how could he? With how busy things had gotten.

"To prevent Orochimaru from completely dying he transplanted it into himself… unfortunately for him, it slowly started taking him over. Now he isn't completely Kabuto… there's no telling how much it is him… best to be safe and kill him while we can, and while we have the time." Tobi stated, staring deep into the azure eyes.

Deidara closed his mouth, only now realizing he had opened it, _that is one messed up person…_

"It shouldn't be too hard to find him… despite his network of spies. He's bound to experiment on people; area's suddenly missing people would be a good lead."

Deidara swallowed tightly, he could easily testify that being experimented on was _not_ fun. Despite being criminals, it wasn't something he condoned nor would wish anyone.

Tobi noticed the slightly haunted look in the azure eyes and frowned, his fist clenching tightly in the long blond hair as anger coursed through him. Damn Orochimaru… it was a shame he hadn't gotten to kill the bastard himself or better yet that Deidara hadn't gotten a chance to do so.

It had been years and Deidara had recovered well from the incident that it was often in the dark recess of his mind; Deidara had been experimented on… and despite that Deidara still hadn't completely gotten over it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tobi asked slowly, cautiously. He didn't want to make things worse… or cause the blond to clam up.

Deidara jolted out of his memory at the softly spoken words, his eyes focusing on the red for a moment before he looked away, despite his decision it was still hard to look into those eyes. It would take some time getting used to it. The words processed and he quickly shook his head.

He _never _wanted…

"Are you sure? The best way to get over something is to talk about it." Tobi inputted, cutting off Deidara's thought.

Lightly Tobi brought his hand to Deidara's face, gently trailing two gloved fingers down the smooth skin.

"Un…" Deidara choked out. What did it matter to talk about it n_ow?_ It happened years ago... and it certainly wouldn't change what happened… though he did have to admit that Tobi was right, sometimes talking about things helped.

Tobi exhaled softly, before leaning down and gently capturing the artist's lips in a quick, chaste kiss, before murmuring, "Maybe someday."

Deidara blinked, ignoring the light blush on his face as relief flowed through him, grateful that Tobi wasn't pressing the matter. He lowered his face, pressing it into the well defined chest.

Tobi ran his hand through the soft locks, as he stared at golden hair, a devious grin appearing on his pale face.

"You know, Senpai… I can teleport."

Deidara blinked, startled. He glanced up to lock with red, noting the other's expression and to his surprise only felt a little uneasy.

"We can get there so much faster than if we walked or took your bird." Tobi stated, his grin turning mischievous at the slight widening of blue orbs. Not waiting for a reply from the teen he continued, "Meaning we don't have to leave for a while."

Staring at the other's expression and what he was suggesting, instantly made Deidara think of sex. His hand gripped tighter, and he struggled to keep from panicking. He didn't… he wasn't ready for _that_…

Tobi chuckled lightly, "Silly Senpai. It means we can sleep some more or just lay here."

Deidara's eyebrow twitched, as he struggled to force down his embarrassed blush while muttering under his breath as he lowered his head, "Like you weren't thinking about it, un." Tobi's expression clearly said he wasn't _just_ thinking about sleeping or staying here, like this, for a while.

Dumbass…

Tobi blinked, lightly surprised, before he grinned, Deidara was getting more comfortable around him. Though his blond was right, he _had_ been thinking about sex, but knew that they weren't about to be doing it. That didn't mean he couldn't fantasize about it, he'd certainly done so over the years.

He burrowed his head in the long blond hair, though it wasn't quite a good idea to get turned on… then he'd have to take a shower…

Pulling away from the soft hair, he smirked down at the teen, despite the fact that the other had his face pressed into his chest.

"Maybe." He sang belatedly to the artist's words, feeling the other twitch before he continued, "Well, instead of sleeping we could take a shower. It would be best to do that before we leave."

Deidara swallowed tightly, shower together? Apprehension bubbled up; if he didn't give things a try then they would never get anywhere.

Feeling his face heat up, he closed his eyes and uttered, "I guess…"

Tobi jolted ever so lightly, his eye a tad wide, he hadn't expected for Deidara to _agree._ He smiled softly, before exclaiming loudly in his obnoxious, childish voice, "Great!"

Deidara cringed at the sudden loud shout, very tempted to hit the other. Deidara pulled away from the warmth reluctantly. Tobi stood up before scooping up the artist still on the bed, who squeaked lightly.

Deidara scowled, he could walk! Why did Tobi have to pick him up? He wasn't some girl!

Tobi chuckled, murmuring cooingly, "You squeak a lot, Senpai."

Deidara's mouth fell open, his face heating up brilliantly in embarrassment. "Shut up hmm!" It wasn't _his_ fault!

Tobi chuckled again, as he entered the bathroom. "Aww, don't be like that Senpai. It's cute."

"Cute!?" Deidara snapped, glaring up at the other. Tobi simply smirked.

The door shut behind them.

Inside Tobi sat the tense teen on the toilet seat, before gripping the edge of the blue shirt and pulling it over the artist's head, who grunted but otherwise remained silent. His lightly tangled blond hair flowed down, gently framing the sides of Deidara's face. Despite the blond's rumpled appearance he was still gorgeous. Turning from the blond, Tobi leaned inside and started the shower, while closing the yellow curtain to prevent water from landing outside the tub.

Meanwhile Deidara was mentally banging his head against a wall, to take a shower meant undressing; therefore they'd both be _naked_. A dark flush engulfed his face; he'd never seen anyone else naked before…, not only that but Tobi would be seeing him too…

The rustle of clothes told him that Tobi was most likely undressed; he lifted his gaze from the tiled floor to the yellow shower curtain.

_Well,_ Deidara thought uncomfortably, biting his lip, _they were both male_.

The Uchiha then helped the blond up ignoring the disgruntled look, "Do you need help… _Senpai?_" his tone dropping at the last word, coming off as a sensuous whisper.

Before his brain had time to think, his arm had already reached up and 'smacked' the taller male in the arm. Tobi chuckled, his ungloved hand reaching for the blond's waistband. Just as he gripped it, his hand was shoved away.

Not the least bit put off, Tobi hummed, "What? It's not like you have something I haven't seen."

Deidara scoffed, ignoring the fact that his face heated farther, "So hmm?" He could undo his pants just fine. With both hands he gripped the material, but before he went any farther, his eyes drifted up and he twitched.

"Don't look." He strained out, knowing it was pretty stupid to get worked up, seeing as shortly Tobi would see anyway.

Tobi resisted the urge to chuckle at the blond's obvious discomfort. He looked so cute, and instead of giving the artist a hard time he shifted his gaze away, giving the other a false sense of privacy.

Swallowing tightly, Deidara pushed aside his hesitancy and with eyes closed, dropped his pants and boxers. Ignoring the small part of his brain that was suggesting he just shower in his boxers, as interesting and more comfortable that would be it was pointless to prolong the inevitable. Eventually Tobi would see him naked… not that sex was at the top of _his_ list but…

Deidara felt his eyes glance to the raven, his eyes trailing over pale, smooth skin before switching his gaze fixatedly to the yellow curtain as his flush increased. He couldn't deny that he was curious.

Tobi shifted closer to the tub, pushing aside the curtain to allow Deidara to get inside. Deidara hesitated for a few moments before moving forward, struggling not to look at Tobi, not to look _lower._

Once inside the shower, warm water cascaded over his body, taking away some of the unease. A small part of him had briefly forgotten about Tobi upon feeling the wonderfully warm water soak him until a pair of strong arms enveloped his waist and drew him close. His back molded perfectly against the taller man's body. Warm, soft lips brushed the blond's neck lightly before resting his chin on Deidara's shoulder blade savoring the moment.

Deidara gritted his teeth tightly, his heart pounding like crazy, a part of him sure that Tobi could hear it. His chest was tight, suffocating, constricting; it was unbelievably uncomfortable being pressed against Tobi's slick warm body and yet at the same time not. It was like being hugged except they were both wet and if he moved he'd brush against something he really didn't want to brush over. N-not now…

He had never taken a shower with someone else before, he'd never given the thought of _what_ it would be like. It was awkward… and strange to be held like this. It was soft, gentle, and somewhat possessive _but_ warm…

Deidara's musing abruptly derailed when a hand… a hand that _was not his_ trailed over his body with a wet, soaped cloth. Breath hitching, and with a light jerk, his hands shot up and stopped Tobi's hand from moving.

Swallowing thickly, tightly, Deidara forced out with a flaming face, "I-I can wash myself, un." At this rate his face would stay permanently red.

"Aw," the usually masked nin whined, a hint of disappointment leaking through, "I really wanted to wash you… Senpai."

Deidara struggled to force down the knot wanting to form in his throat, when he had agreed to shower together, he hadn't anticipated Tobi washing, _wanting _to wash his body.

Tobi frowned lightly, trying to quell his disappointment but not the least bit surprised, before an idea formed and he settled on a compromise, "Then can I wash your hair?"

Shaking his head, Deidara went to refuse, still gripping tightly to Tobi's still yet soft arm only to be beat to it, "Please," Tobi pleaded.

Deidara paused; stilling the refusal on his tongue before closing his eyes, well washing his hair would be more comfortable then having Tobi wash his body.

"Fine…" realizing Tobi would have to let go of him to do that though.

Tobi blinked, thinking for a moment that he was hearing things before a grin replaced his frown, pressing his face into the artist's neck, nuzzling briefly, and earning a shudder before he pulled away with a small, toned down squeal, "Yay! Thank you, Senpai!"

Deidara twitched but refrained from commenting. Shifting noises reached him and then a small 'plop' sounded and while Tobi quickly did his own hair, Deidara shifted focus onto the cloth in his left hand that the older nin had previously had. It was still soapy so he quickly went about cleaning.

Tobi finished with his hair and re-wrapped his arms around his blond pulling him flush against him. The teen immediately tensed but uttered no words. Lifting up a pale hand Tobi brushed soft, wet hair away from Deidara's neck before lightly taking Deidara's earlobe between tender teeth. The artist trembled lightly but he made no attempt to pull away.

_Oh fuck…_ Deidara thought with an inward groan. If Tobi kept doing stuff like this, all the blood in his body was going to stay in his face and something unneeded would happen in his neither regions.

Releasing the teen's ear Tobi drifted down to the lightly tan neck and kissed it gently before murmuring, "Close your eyes, Senpai, so I can do your hair."

Tobi shifted behind him and Deidara gathered the other was gathering shampoo and he quickly closed his eyes, he didn't need to get the stuff in his eyes. Shampoo stung and was not fun; it was almost as bad as his hand mouths tasting it…

The taller male carefully kneaded some of the tension away from Deidara's scalp using firm circular motions. Deidara kept his eyes clamped shut but couldn't help but find it mildly relaxing, having someone else wash his hair. This wasn't so bad…

Once the shampoo was washed away Tobi repeated the process with conditioner before holding the blond gently but firmly under the warm spray of water.

Leaving the teen under the direct spray, Tobi took the cloth held loosely in the blond's right hand before pausing, "Want to wash me… Senpai?" he cooed with a smirk, watching the teen jolt.

Deidara sputtered and not thinking whipped around to berate the other, but the words never left his mouth. Instead of locking gazes with Tobi's pale face, his blue eyes landed on a pale, smooth and a very defined chest. And very _wet…_

Throat dry, his blue eyes unintentionally followed a trail of water, working its way down the well built physic. His mouth fell open as his eyes dropped,

Tobi was huge!

Then his brain processed where he was looking and he sputtered, his face heating up farther (if that was possible) he quickly tore his gaze away.

Tobi chuckled at the display, watching as the red on the blond's face increased and wanted nothing more than to kiss the teen. Deidara looked so cute. Derailing the thought as not to get distracted Tobi let his eyes trail over the slender, yet lightly tan chest.

Despite not looking earlier, he couldn't help himself now, Deidara was facing him. His eyes went over the toned body before slipping lower. Deidara was relatively big, not bigger than him, no surprise but… his musing derailed at the 'eep' from the artist and in the next instant was hit in the arm.

"I told you not to look, un!"

Tobi blinked before a smirk spread across his pale face, eyes darting to the azure eyes, "You looked first… _Senpai._"

His smirk grew a little more at the sputtered response.

Deidara whipped around thoroughly embarrassed. He hadn't meant to look!

Tobi lightly chuckled and quickly washed himself. Placing the cloth down, he wrapped his arms around the lithe form, holding him gently.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about… Dei-chan." Tobi uttered softly.

Deidara blinked, his shoulders dropping a little, his embarrassment leaving for the moment, as he gaped. Twitching Deidara growled, "Don't call me that hmm."

Tobi pressed his face into wet hair, "Why not? You let Kisame call you that."

Deidara's forehead creased, he respected Kisame. Had for years, he'd gotten used to it. But he wasn't a girl, "So? It's Kisame."

Tobi huffed lightly, that didn't exactly explain _why_ Deidara allowed the shark nin to call him 'Dei-chan', though he'd always figured it was due to the blond's respect for the other. "So?" Tobi pushed back, "You're mine."

Deidara scowled, but conceded, "Fine, but you can't call me that in front of anyone." He could make an exception for Tobi, seeing as it really sounded like the raven really wanted to call him that.

Tobi blinked startled, he'd been prepared to have to argue to get the blond to let him call him 'Dei-chan'. He grinned, pleased, though he honestly preferred 'Senpai', and he had no problem with that condition, it would be strange, possibly suspicious to the other members if he suddenly referred to the blond as 'Dei-chan'.

Focusing back on the artist, he tightened his hold mildly, "My Dei-chan."

Deidara twitched, but couldn't help the small smile that alighted his flushed face.

Finally after what felt like an hour, and maybe it was, Tobi raised one hand and turned the knob shutting the water off. Letting go of the blond, the older male pushed aside the yellow curtain and grabbed a big fluffy white towel. He gathered the long blond hair and proceeded to dry Deidara's hair. Then he draped the towel around the artist who let loose a small noise of surprise. He retrieved his own and vacated the tub.

Deidara slowly stumbled out of the tub, his hand quickly landed on the nearest surface, the counter. He glanced up as the door opened and Tobi entered their shared room. The cold air filtered into the bathroom causing Deidara to shiver, he wrapped his towel around him tighter.

Within a few moments the mirror which had been fogged started to dry ever so slowly. Reaching a mouthed hand up Deidara wiped the mirror several times till he could see his face.

Tobi reappeared in the door way, dressed in his usual black and the orange swirled mask back on his face.

"Come on Senpai! We should get going."

Deidara blinked, before returning his focus back to his reflection, "Yeah, yeah," waving a hand dismissively. "Get out so I can get dressed."

Tobi blinked, but instead of giving the artist a hard time, they _did_ need to get going, he nodded once and headed towards the door, "I'll meet you in the kitchen!"

Deidara absentmindedly nodded and with a sigh dropped his towel to get dressed.

~88

Deidara watched as people bustled about, annoyance plainly visible on his features, his right hand propping his chin up as he sat on an uncomfortable, slightly rickety seat.

After their shower, they'd had breakfast, then they had teleported.

Deidara twitched a little as he recalled how that went.

~ Flashback

Outside the Akatsuki base, surrounded by trees, Tobi stated that there was no need to go any farther. They could teleport right here.

Deidara glanced around disinterestedly as he muttered with mild curiosity and apprehension, "So, how does this work?"

Tobi grinned fleetingly before humming comfortingly, "It's not going to hurt." He ignored the glare from the younger male, and invaded the blond's personal space, lightly but firmly gripping the other's arms before adding, "This won't take very long."

Deidara raised an eyebrow; he'd been figuring that they'd have to touch if Tobi was going to be taking Deidara with him.

Tobi drew the artist firmly against himself, murmuring, "Hold on." Of course he didn't need to be holding onto Deidara in order to teleport them both but he'd rather hold the blond and since Deidara didn't know that he couldn't give him a hard time.

Deidara glanced up at the swirled mask, but of course couldn't glean anything from the mask. Slowly, hesitantly Deidara snaked his arms around the taller male and gripped tightly.

"Relax," Tobi hummed quietly as he focused. It wasn't really a big deal if Deidara was relaxed or not, but if the artist was, there was less of a chance of the blond freaking out. Not that he really expected Deidara to, after all this wasn't going to hurt. It'd just be different, uncomfortable and _new._

Deidara arched an eyebrow before inhaling deeply, then exhaling, his fingers clenching farther into the dark material of the Akatsuki cloak. Closing his eyes, he pressed his face into Tobi's well defined chest and waited.

He felt the air around them shift and the next instant a tug, a pulling sensation. Then a heavy pressure descended on him, making it relatively hard to breath, even move. But it swiftly passed, lasting for a few moments. The air shifted again, another tug, pressure and then it stilled.

Deidara kept his face pressed into the masked nin's chest, _had they teleported?_

Tobi slowly released his grip on the blond, alerting Deidara that they had teleported. He stepped back, eyes opening slowly, only to have vertigo wash over him, a hand snapping up to his forehead.

"Senpai okay?" Tobi's childish voice asked softly, while reaching towards the teen.

Deidara grunted, opening his eyes once the spell passed, nodding.

Tobi straightened, relieved. He had teleported other people before but he had always killed them, Sasuke and that red haired female the only exception. But if they suffered from any after effects he hadn't bothered to find out or notice.

Deidara glanced around and frowned, "This isn't Iron."

Tobi jolted a tad, before muttering nervously, sheepishly "Have to check something real quick and uh pick something up. Then we'll head to Iron."

Deidara twitched, leveling an irritated glare at the dumbass before huffing and following the other.

~End Flashback

Needless to say that the teleporting hadn't been that bad, weird but interesting. He kind of wished he'd kept his eyes open so that he could see… maybe next time… if there was a next time. Honestly he preferred flying.

Pushing the new experience away Deidara closed his eyes with an irritated growl, he'd been sitting here for over thirty minutes! He thought they were in a hurry!

He wouldn't be so ticked off if he didn't have to wait in this ridiculously small food café with only old people instead of accompanying the masked nin! Wouldn't it have been faster if he'd gone with him!?

But no, the dumbass had insisted it wouldn't take long and that there was no need for him to come and 'suggested' he wait in the café. Deidara scoffed, right suggested, more like_ told_ him to, Deidara had been adamant with going and apparently as Tobi put it 'they were wasting time and to go sit and wait for him', then took off, leaving him unable to trail.

_Stupid Uchiha…_

Deidara's arm dropped from his chin and his face met the surface of the, thankfully clean table top.

Everything was relatively silent till,

"Uh… you okay?" a masculine voice asked.

Deidara laid still.

"Uh… Miss?"

Silence.

Deidara twitched as someone prodded him, immediately he thought of ignoring the person, until it persisted, followed by, "Miss?"

Anger swelled, and he bolted upright, a distant part of his brain realizing that this bastard had been talking to him the whole time, not someone else as he had thought, before leveling a murderous glare at the brown haired male.

The mystery man jerked back, raising his hands in a sign of peace, "I d-didn't mean to bother you, I… you just looked… I wasn't sure if you were okay."

Deidara felt a smirk take shape as he eyed the intimated male; he was tall, taller than him but not taller than Tobi. He had a smooth, undamaged face, with light brown eyes that almost matched his hair.

"What is it a crime to lie on a table?" Deidara gritted out with a hint of venom lacing his tone, this guy thought he was a girl! IF it wouldn't have drawn attention, he would have already sent a bomb at the guy.

The unnamed male shook his head, a sweat drop inching its way down his face, "No, of course not. But I saw you, Miss a-"

Deidara couldn't hold in a growl at the idiot's continued belief that he was a girl, instantly cutting the other off. Hands clenched beneath the table he snapped, "I'm not a girl!"

Surprise flashed across the male's face followed by shock, he gaped with wide eyes before coughing, "Ah forgive me, with such long beautiful hair I figured you were female." He ended with a bow much to Deidara's surprise and mild disgust.

Deidara twitched, closing his eyes and willing himself to calm down, blowing this idiot up, while it would make him feel better, would not do well to make a scene…

Pointedly he ignored the 'beautiful hair' comment, opening his eyes, he uttered as calmly as he could, also making sure to leave off his impediment, "Go away."

The man just stared, giving the impression that he didn't comprehend the blond's words. Squaring his shoulders, and with a pleasant smile, stated cordially, "My name is Shin Takashi. I have insulted you. Please let me make it up to you."

Deidara blinked, his hands unclenching, why the hell would he want to make it up to him? The bastard should know he wouldn't get anything out of it, he wasn't female…

"No." Deidara hummed flatly.

Shin frowned lightly, his head tipping sideways, "Why? Do you already have a boyfriend?"

Deidara jolted, his mouth falling open in stunned shock and gall, but before he could snap at the brown haired male, he added,

"He sure isn't a very considerate one, leaving you here waiting like this." Shin glanced around the small place, eyes wandering over an elderly couple several paces away before returning to the lovely blue orb of the blond.

He had never met someone so stunning before, no female compared to him! He had to have him! But the blond had turned him down, just like that. He'd never been turned down before! Not by either gender! It was infuriating but he quickly gathered that someone so beautiful had to have a boyfriend already and that was why he'd been rejected. The blond was trying to stay faithful to the lousy guy, despite _wanting_ to be with him.

Deidara glared furiously at the idiot, he never said he even _had_ one! Fucker shouldn't assume things… Though if the bastard believed him to already have one then Shin should leave him alone, without too much more trouble. Though the idiotic male had found out that he was male before asking if he already had a boyfriend. Why did he believe it had to be a guy and not a girl?

He skipped the thought, he didn't really care.

A smile replaced his glare, unaware of the lowering of IQ to the man before him, "Oh he is very considerate. He just had to take care of something and I didn't feel like tagging along. But thanks for your inquiry."

Shin frowned, inwardly pissed, before comforting himself; the blond was just probably hurt and trying to hide it. Who would admit to being dumped?

"How about I keep you company then, just until he gets back?"

Deidara groaned inwardly but kept the smile on his face, persistent guy…

"No thanks. I appreciate the offer but-" Deidara paused, the smile slipping from his face, leaving annoyance and irritation, "I don't like you and would appreciate it if you'd leave."

Shin jerked, clearly taken aback, he stared at the annoyed face, idly thinking he still looked beautiful, before taking a step towards the sitting blond.

Before Shin could utter another word, Deidara stood, fed up, intending to leave, otherwise it wouldn't be long before he snapped and blew the bastard up.

"Wait!" Shin cried.

Deidara ignored him up until the fucker grabbed his arm, furious he swung around, yanking his arm free, "Go away before I blow you up!"

Deidara twitched when the male took his words obviously the wrong way, Shin sported a leering smirk, as if saying 'I knew you couldn't resist me'. His left hand snapped to his side but before he could open his clay bag and slip his eager mouthed hand inside his wrist was caught.

Deidara stilled, seeing as it obviously wasn't Shin touching him, the bastard was in front of him; he glanced down and relaxed, a black gloved hand was preventing him from gathering clay.

Shin frowned at the new arrival, an instant later seething anger followed. This had to be the boyfriend, judging from the way the blond just stood there, allowing him to grip his arm.

The orange masked nin released his grip and turned his attention towards the brown haired male, "Senpai told you to leave."

Shin blinked startled, his furious thoughts derailing for the moment, the voice that had just flowed out from behind that gaudy looking mask did not fit this man's appearance. He was tall, had dark black, spiky hair, yet his voice was so _childish…_

He glared, idly finding the term 'Senpai' odd for a couple, it certainly didn't come off as affectionate. "So? Why should I?" He edged a little closer to the blue eyed male, mindful of the raven's proximity to the blond, and hurried forth, "Because _you_ said so?"

Deidara's fingers twitched, itching to throttle the exceedingly dense man, Tobi had _yet_ to tell Shin to leave him alone, was this idiot hard of hearing?

"No," Tobi hissed out lowly, mindful of keeping his tone childish, "I have not yet told you to do anything. But Senpai certainly has. And you _should_ respect that, unless you want to get yourself killed."

Shin stared blankly at the orange masked male, mildly stunned before a smirk broke forth. How absurd, this orange lollypop killing _him?_ As if he could do such a thing. His brown orbs shifted to the beautiful blue one, the blond certainly wouldn't allow that to happen. And he was sure that the masked nin would honor his former lover's request.

With a jaunty smirk, Shin made a quick sweeping motion at the raven, "What do you _see_ in him?" He stepped forward, ignoring the slight shift from the mask wearing idiot, "You can do better."

Deidara scoffed, "What, like you?" the answering grin was enough of an answer, even though everyone present already knew Shin was referring to himself.

"I mean just look at him. He's wearing such a ridiculous, eye sore mask and clearly doesn't have much of a brain."

_Like you're one to talk._ Deidara thought with agitation.

Tobi glared angrily at the other, he was certainly trying his patience. No, there was no reason to get worked up, nothing the bastard said was true, and he knew that Deidara didn't think so, seeing as he knew the truth.

Shin let his smirk grow, "I can offer you so much more-"

The next instant the idiotic brown haired male was on the ground, unconscious. Deidara blinked a few times, glancing at Tobi's outstretched fist.

At Deidara's raised eyebrow, he hummed, "I didn't see any point in putting up with his stupidity any longer."

Deidara scoffed, crossing his arms across his slim chest, "Well if you had let me blow him up, we wouldn't have had to deal with him this long."

Tobi lowered his arm, staring at the collapsed man, "That would have drawn unwanted attention." It wasn't like he had a problem with Deidara blowing the dense male up, he certainly wanted to kill him, but doing so would cause a scene.

Deidara grunted; irritation fixed to his features as he eyed the swirled mask, "And knocking him out didn't?" He didn't have to look around to know that the few people in the little café were blatantly staring at them.

Tobi sighed, muttering lowly, "An explosion would have done more damage, cause a big scene." He shifted his gaze to the irritated blond, "All I did was punch him, hardly a big deal." And it wasn't. Sure it got them noticed, but stuff like this took place quite a bit. The guy was still alive, no damage had been dealt. This was hardly going to come back and bite them.

Though it might be a good idea to kill 'Shin Takashi'. If he was that smitten with Deidara, there was a good chance that he would not forget, but that didn't seem likely. He could intentionally or unintentionally cause them trouble later.

Tobi returned his attention to Deidara, who scoffed. Shifting closer, Tobi wrapped his arm around the blond's waist, "Come on." He ignored the twitch from the artist, "Though I should have just killed him. No one will miss him." With a quiet hum, Tobi glanced down at the male on the floor; he'd have to kill him later; when no one else was around.

Deidara glanced away from the raven, vainly trying to ignore the arm around his waist, "You're done with everything?" he couldn't contain the irritation and spite in his voice. Though he was sure the dumbass was aware of his feelings on being left waiting.

Tobi grinned lightly in amusement, glad that Deidara couldn't see his face, "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't. We can leave in the morning." He ignored the curious look from the teen, sure they could leave now, but this way it gave him time to kill Shin, made it simpler too.

~ End Chapter 13

The lemon is in the next chap

Posted: 10/04/2012


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

To anonymous reviewer Guest – Thanks so much for all the reviews! I appreciate it! Glad you're enjoying the story so far, hope it doesn't disappoint.

Hopefully the lemon isn't … a disappointment. It is the first one in this story and there is at least one more. I was writing the lemon at the same time I was trying to watch Assassins, so it didn't come out completely the way I wanted, unfortunately. But it has gone through a few tweaks since. And overall I like it, but that's me…

**Note** – I have been informed of a re-used name, which was used back in the sixth chap. Ah, well their names were reversed… but still closely the same. Souta Takumi in this chapter has been re-named to 'Shin Takashi.'

**(Possible Spoiler)**Sigh… I am seriously… I can't believe that Tobi is really, apparently Obito! It's like 'how'? And apparently the only reason he is doing everything is because Rin died… just ridiculous. (And then Fan fiction took Obito's name and tagged it onto Tobi's and **ticks** me off. For one not every story that is labeled Tobi is him being Obito!) Just… argh…

…Okay I'm done

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 14 – Why Do You Love Me?

Deidara glanced around the small, crappy hotel room with a glare. Sometimes it really grated on him that they had to stay in such poor places, but honestly if there was a bed, relatively comfortable then he was happy.

It just surprised him that a hotel in such a bad shape and with possible bug infestation was still making business. Shaking his head, he strolled over to the window and pulled down the thin, ripped curtain.

Turning he headed towards the only bed. He had tried booking a room with two beds but none were available, vexingly it seemed this was turning out to be a common occurrence. Well it saved them money, Kakuzu at least would be happy.

Deidara flung back the horrid puke colored blanket and settled beneath it. Tobi already lay quiet and Deidara thought he'd already fallen asleep.

Odd but then Tobi had made no move to pull him closer, something he'd been constantly doing, so perhaps he was really asleep.

That, however was blown out the window when Tobi reached over and turned off the lamp light, uttering a quiet, distant sounding "Good night."

Deidara stared confused and a little worried at the dark ceiling. Was Tobi mad at him? Or was he just so preoccupied with things, with Iron, Kabuto and leader responsibilities?

Deidara tilted his head, frowning at the masked nin, he didn't even want to try to sleep like this.

Tobi sighed, he shouldn't be letting that idiot's words and actions bother him. And yet despite that and everything, a part of him was afraid, afraid that Deidara _would_ believe that he could do better. That someone who wore a gaudy, attention-grabbing mask couldn't compare… but it wasn't like there was something wrong with his face. As Deidara had seen for himself… but then there was the fact that he was an Uchiha, and the lying… but he was sure that Deidara had come to terms with that otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to give him a chance.

Sighing heavily, he closed his eye, only to snap it open when he felt a body press against his side and an arm land on his stomach. Obviously it was Deidara but this was the first time the artist had ever come to _him_. He'd always initiated the contact.

Deidara snuggled into Tobi's side, a small smile taking root when Tobi wrapped his arm around him, contentment washing over him. Well at least that proved Tobi wasn't mad at him; if he was he would have probably just ignored him or even pushed him away, though the pushing thing Deidara couldn't see happening.

As surprised as Tobi was, he decided it would be better not to mention it. He tightened his grip a little, happy that Deidara had settled against him without him doing anything. It said a lot.

"What's wrong, un?"

Tobi blinked at the sudden question from the artist. What gave Deidara the impression that something was wrong… wrong with him?

"Nothing, Senpai." Tobi mumbled in his childish, obnoxious voice. Really it was hardly anything.

Deidara frowned but decided not to press the issue, "Dumbass." After all everyone had their off days.

Deidara cringed lightly at the small jolt from the masked nin and immediately realized he'd spoken out loud. He hadn't meant to say that aloud… his heart sped up a bit, was Tobi mad at being called that? He was after all not really a dumbass. He was the Akatsuki leader; no good leader could be one. That and Tobi had proven he was not an idiot.

Tobi opened his mouth, intent on voicing his surprise and to tell the artist not to call him that but then closed it. Deidara, before finding out the truth had constantly called him a 'dumbass'. It was his nickname, like Hidan's was 'panda-chan'. And while it had been a derogatory term at first, it had slowly developed into an affectionate term. He didn't mind Deidara calling him that, it proved that despite everything, things were in a way still the same.

When Deidara was met with silence, he figured Tobi didn't have a problem with him calling him that, and a part of him was glad, especially since he had a habit of referring to the raven as a 'dumbass' in his head, now he could say it again.

Silence ensued, only their light breathing filling the small room.

Deidara fidgeted, pressing his face into the dark material while biting his lip. He wanted to ask Tobi something… something that had been on his mind since he'd agreed to give the raven a chance. But did he really want to know?

Clenching his eyes shut, he gripped the black shirt tightly. He _had_ to know. It was too important.

"Tobi?" Deidara mumbled in the stillness of the small, crappy room, his voice low, a hint of anxiety leaking through.

Tobi gripped more firmly to the artist as his masked face tilted down so that he could see golden blond hair. He frowned lightly, mild concern coming forth at the teen's tone. Was Deidara upset with the incident at the café? It wasn't like anything had really happened… perhaps he was just upset at being mistaken for a female, something which happened often. But Deidara's tone didn't sound right if that was the case.

"What is it, Senpai?" Tobi murmured quietly in his childish voice.

Deidara frowned, unintentionally pulling at Tobi's dark shirt as he worked on how to voice things. He should have had exactly what he wanted to say ready beforehand…

Scoffing quietly, Deidara decided being blunt would be easier. Drawing in a deep, mildly shaking breath, he licked his slightly dry lips once before steeling himself, "Why do you love me?"

Tobi froze, his unwrapped eye going wide, shock and surprise engulfing him. Quickly he regained himself as a deep frown situated on his mouth. Why? Was it really not clear? He'd thought his affections had been obvious all these years…

His arm pulled the artist farther against him, earning a small gasp in protest. There was only so much space left, Deidara couldn't possibly get any closer.

Tobi exhaled deeply as his eye closed; then again he never did tell Deidara _why_ he loved him. What he saw in him. So the sculptor's question was understandable. Deidara's hesitancy and anxiety made sense. After all Deidara had agreed to give him a chance despite being an Uchiha, despite the lying, so for him to feel as he was feeling was to be expected. Because for all Deidara knew, his reason could end up not justifying giving him a chance.

Deidara stayed silent with bated breath, hoping that Tobi wouldn't just ignore his question and that if he did answer… he prayed that it wasn't just petty interest. Most people declared interest because of his looks; he sincerely hoped that wasn't Tobi's reason. Loving someone for their looks wasn't real love.

Tobi relaxed his arm, the one holding the blond firmly. If there was one thing that struck him about the blond it was his, "Passion."

Deidara blinked at the firm tone, _his_ passion?

"You have such passion for your art. No matter what anyone else said, no matter that only you believed in your definition of art – art being fleeting. You were adamant, firm, truly believed that art is fleeting. You didn't let anything change that." Tobi paused, wanting to glance down to see Deidara's expression, but with his mask on and with the teen's face mostly pressed into his shirt, he couldn't.

Deidara's forehead creased, but wasn't given a lot of time to contemplate the other's words as he continued.

"I didn't feel much of anything for you at first, your attitude was disrespectful and you were arrogant. But you were also young so it was understandable."

Deidara twitched in annoyance and anger but reminded himself that it wasn't like Tobi was lying; he had been and still kind of was a brat.

"Somewhere along the way, I found your attitude endearing, a nice change from the other members. You also were bright, energetic; you brought life to the dreary organization, and ultimately brought everyone closer." Tobi stilled his words for a moment as he slowly shifted his arm up and lightly tangled his gloved hand into long locks. "There were times when I would look into your eyes and see a deep burning flame. You amassed determination and will…" Tobi closed his eye as he finished, "You gave light to my darkness."

He fell silent, waiting for whatever reaction the blond would have, he wasn't _sure_ how or what would happen. He wasn't quite sure how else to say it, to express his reasons for his love for the petulant blond.

Deidara swallowed tightly, thickly, trying to quell the shock and surprise and the other emotions welling up inside him, a deep, royal blush coating his face, no matter how hard he tried to repress it. He… he couldn't believe it… Tobi… he truly loved him. It wasn't like he had been doubting that he had just wanted to know why, out of everyone in the world, why him?

With strain, Deidara buried his fingers in the black shirt, mildly pulling on it again as he choked out trying to keep his voice from cracking, "N-not b-because of my looks, un?"

Tobi's brow furrowed, and he frowned but he was hardly surprised, "Your looks is not what made me fall in love, but they certainly helped. You are very beautiful." He felt the artist twitch at being called 'beautiful' and he couldn't help the light grin that stole over his face. But it was true; Deidara had a fair complexion, almond shaped eyes with stunning blue orbs and long lovely golden blond hair.

"And your speech impediment is cute." Why he felt compelled to add that Tobi wasn't overly sure but he had often, over the years heard the other members complain that at times Deidara's speech impediment got annoying, but not to him. After all he went around acting like an idiot and sprouting ridiculous things, along with speaking in third person. Perhaps if he hadn't grown accustomed to talking and hearing himself in third person Deidara's speech issue _might_ have bothered him but that wasn't so.

Deidara blinked, his hand relaxing in Tobi's shirt, his heart hammering a mile a minute and a part of him was certain the masked nin could hear it. "Oh…" What else could he _say_ to all _that_? At least Tobi didn't think of him as a freak…

Deidara froze, his insides freezing. No… wait Tobi had never said any such thing… but surely he wouldn't love him if he thought so… right?

Everyone in Iwa thought of him as a freak because of his hand mouths (and chest mouth, but it wasn't common to see it so hardly on people's minds), and while no one in the Akatsuki, save Hidan had _ever _given him that 'look' like the custom one back in Iwa didn't mean that Tobi and the other's didn't _think _it.

But surely Tobi didn't think so, because if he did then how could he love him?

Tobi frowned, _oh?_ That's all he had to say to everything he just said? "That help, Senpai?" he murmured after a few brief moments of silence and staring at blond hair.

Deidara twitched, his mind returning from his thoughts at Tobi's soft question. Had it? His brow furrowed and he pressed his face into the dark material. Yes, it had but there was still the matter of… of being a freak. His hand fisted tightly into the dark shirt, as he squeezed his eyes shut. But did he dare to ask?

"Senpai?" Tobi hummed, his tone slightly demanding as he ran his gloved hand smoothly through the golden hair.

Deidara huffed into the shirt, his lips making contact with the material, and grimaced a little before he nodded jerkily.

Tobi closed his eye with a sigh, before removing his hand from the long hair, and shifted onto his side, like Deidara was and engulfed him into a tight but comforting embrace.

Deidara stared wide eyed into the dark shirt as Tobi pressed into him, his heart shooting back up and his face coloring lightly at the change in position.

"What is it?" Tobi asked gently, soothingly in his deep, velvety voice. Was Deidara simply emotional from his words?

Deidara slowly shook his head, trying to push the sudden rise of emotion down as he choked out, "N-nothing." A few brief moments passed and he cringed; now Tobi would be sure that something was wrong. Stupid voice.

Tobi sighed heavily, and he lightly re-tangled his gloved hand back into the blond hair and tugged Deidara's head back, with his other hand he shifted his orange mask to the side of his head. Bending down he locked gazes with azure ones and repeated more sternly, "What is it?"

Deidara jerked, his breath catching, as he stared into the intricate orb of the sharingan, vaguely noticing that his fear of _those_ eyes wasn't as overwhelming as it used to be.

Tobi wrapped his free arm back around the teen's thin frame, as he lightly prodded the artist's head, "You can tell me, Dei-chan."

Deidara's forehead creased at the suffix to his name, unable to stop a twitch despite giving Tobi permission to call him that. It was clear the raven wasn't going to let this go… and he did want to know Tobi's answer…

Swallowing, and just barely refraining himself from wetting his lips he uttered, while lowering his gaze to Tobi's pale, smooth chin, "I'm a…"

"A what?" Tobi pressed as the blond trailed off, leaning a little closer to the sculptor's face trying to lock gazes but Deidara pointedly refused to look up. It was clear that whatever it was, made Deidara uncomfortable and uneasy… or perhaps it was just telling him that made him feel so.

Closing his eyes, Deidara whispered, "A freak." A part of him hoping that Tobi wouldn't hear but knew that was foolish since the raven was so close to him.

Tobi's eye widened in shock, his hand fisting unintentionally in Deidara's hair earning a small gasp, which was ignored as anger swallowed his features and coursed through his veins and he growled, "Don't call yourself that!"

Deidara jerked back as if he'd been struck, his eyes impossibly wide, stunned shock and surprise flittering through him, and showing visibly on his features.

"B-but…" Deidara stuttered; his eyes locked with a burning red one.

"Deidara." Tobi snapped, cutting off the blond's stuttering.

Said male swallowed tightly, thickly, his entire focus on Tobi's angry face.

"You are **not** a freak!" Tobi watched as the blond's mouth fell open and he added more gently, "Why would you think that?" Sure everyone in the Akatsuki had a strange quirk or ability but to call themselves a freak and to believe it, was disconcerting.

Deidara worked his mouth several times, struggling to voice his thoughts but with limited success, his mind more interested in focusing on the other's words.

"Dei?" Tobi cut through the throng of thoughts.

Deidara's forehead creased and he frowned, his eyes deviating from the red eye as he choked out in mild certainty, "Because of my hand mouths, un." They, despite being born with them were unnatural. There wasn't another human being in the entire world that possessed mouths on their hands or chest. They were unnatural, freakish. And while they hadn't always bothered him, it hurt to be viewed as a freak by the people of his village… ex-village and if Tobi felt the same… the hurt would be too great.

Tobi felt his mouth drop a little in astonishment, his hand mouths!? That was why the blond thought he was a freak? His lips pressed into a thin line as he instantly recalled that back when Deidara was still a part of Iwa, he had been labeled and viewed as such. It was ultimately one of the biggest reason's Deidara left. He wouldn't have thought the teen felt it to be true…

Closing his eye, he exhaled slowly, calming himself. Then bent down and captured his blond's mouth in a searing yet gentle kiss.

Deidara 'humphed' into the sudden kiss before his eye's fell shut and he hesitantly focused on working his mouth against Tobi's, momentarily ignoring things.

Tobi ran his tongue over the artist's bottom lip and not waiting for permission, slithered his wet tongue inside, and then proceeded to explore the moist cavern.

Deidara moaned, feeling red blossom across his face, embarrassment bursting through his veins.

Tobi pulled back, so that Deidara could breathe, a thin strand of saliva following him. He surveyed the blushing face, a small almost invisible smile gracing his face even as he felt his member come to life at the wanton expression. Pressing his forehead against Deidara's he murmured softly, adamantly, "Your hand mouths… all your mouths do not make you a freak, do not label you as one. It makes you unique, one of a kind." And he firmly believed that, Deidara's hand mouths were a very interesting, ravish able feature.

Deidara stared with wide eyes into the one visible red eye, his mind trying to refuse what Tobi was saying but the raw honesty was not something that could or would be ignored.

His lip trembled, his hands shook, Tobi didn't think of him as a freak… he said it, he meant it. Someone actually, truly didn't think or view him as a freak. Deidara swallowed tightly, thickly, lowering his gaze as he fought the rise of emotions. He would not cry! With massive effort Deidara was able to refrain from spilling tears but offered a wobbly smile.

Tobi hummed then pressed his mouth against the slightly quivering lips of the blond in a chaste, loving kiss, his arms tightening slightly around the lithe form.

As Tobi pulled away, Deidara became aware of something poking into him. Considering how close they were pressed together and the location the object poking him was situated… the second his mind made the connection his face relit with a flame.

Huffing and with a shaking hand, he gripped tightly to the black shirt, "… T-tobi, un?"

Tobi blinked, his attention focusing back on the azure orb, noticing the very red face and instantly put it together. A smirk slid onto his features, mild amusement taking resident, it would seem that Deidara had noticed his little problem.

"Yes, Senpai?" Tobi cooed, earning a twitch from the younger male.

Immediately Deidara's brain realized that Tobi was going to be infuriating about this situation, so instead of answering, his free hand, his other was pinned mostly under him, snapped flat against the dark shirt and shoved. Unfortunately, as always he didn't budge the other in the slightest.

Tobi chuckled, leaning down he buried his unmasked face into the lightly tan neck, inhaling the soft scent of earth, his hot breath lightly caressing the pale flesh earning a shudder and a sharp intake of breath from the artist.

"I love you." Tobi voiced reverently, his arms tightening a little as if to emphasize his words.

Deidara stilled his pointless shoving, his breathing coming a little faster than normal.

Tobi trailed his moist, wet tongue over the tan neck, earning a small jerk and a shuddering gasp, "T-tobi!"

Deidara flushed heavily, his hand fisting in Tobi's shirt as his eyes snapped tightly shut.

Tobi hummed after pulling away, breathing into the sculptor's neck, "Will you let me show you?" His voice laced with desire and want.

Deidara swallowed thickly, trying to force the knot in his throat away, as his body froze at the raven's words. A part of him instantly refusing but another part of his body felt otherwise. He… he couldn't deny that he was curious and he couldn't think of a really good reason not to have sex. He, not being ready was a lame excuse, because he felt that he would never be fully prepared.

And he needed to _feel_… he wanted to feel.

So hesitantly, timidly he nodded, knowing that there was no room for regret.

Tobi blinked at the movement and pulled back so that he could see the blond's face, "You want to?"

Deidara gritted his teeth briefly before nodding again in confirmation.

~Start of Lemon!~ Mature!

Tobi's shoulders straightened, as he scrutinized Deidara's expression, searchingly, making sure that Deidara really wanted to do this. Finally after staring fixatedly into azure eyes, he nodded and pressed his lips firmly against the artist's before murmuring, "Good."

He snapped his hand up and removed his mask, tossing it onto the rickety night stand, his gloves following a few moments later. He gently shifted Deidara onto his back, leaving him straddling the artist. He eyed the uncertain expression, "If at any time you want to stop…" he leaned down, locking gazes, "All you have to do is say so." He wanted Deidara to want it, truly want it.

Deidara nodded slowly, feeling immensely uncomfortable, he was out of his element, he didn't know what to do, so he just lay stiffly.

Tobi gripped the blue material of the teen's shirt and lightly tugged, it took a few moments before it registered on the blond's face what Tobi wanted and allowed the material to be pulled off.

Tobi gazed almost greedily over the smooth defined chest, elation shooting through him as his right hand settled gently on the blond's chest. A part of him was having a hard time grasping the fact that this was really, truly,_ finally_ happening. Oh how he had longed for this, longed to claim Deidara.

He swept his ungloved hand over the artist's skin until it reached the nipple; lightly, slowly he ran a finger over the nub earning a light jerk from the younger male.

Deidara buried his fingers into the pale yellow sheets with a tight swallow. His face red, knowing it would be staying that way till the very end, his heart thumping against his rib cage and he felt slightly nauseous but figured it was more from nerves than anything.

He'd never done this before but he knew roughly how things worked. Still knowing wasn't the same as doing…

Tobi buried his face in Deidara's neck, running his tongue over the skin, as he ran his pale hands up the blond's sides who jumped a little. Pulling back, he pressed his lips against Deidara's in a chaste kiss before murmuring, "Relax." The blond was far too tense, but that was no surprise.

Deidara blinked, and tried to will his muscles to relax as Tobi trailed his hand to the top of the golden head and released the partial ponytail from its confinement. He marveled at the artist's overall beauty for a moment before bending down and running his tongue over the skin of the teen's neck, earning a small shudder before sinking his teeth into the flesh.

Deidara yelped in shock and mild pain, his hands shooting up partway before freezing as Tobi started sucking on the spot and a moan slipped forth before he could quell it.

Tobi smirked lightly at the noise as he sucked on the small spot of flesh, making sure to leave a prominent mark. With one last lick he pulled away, eyeing the area, before lightly brushing a finger over the mark. This mark signalized that Deidara was **his**; it was just a shame that it couldn't be permanent.

Continuing, he trailed light kisses from Deidara's neck to the well-defined chest before pausing as he reached the nipple.

Deidara drew a shuddering breath, his hands once again fisted into the yellow sheet, his eyes closed.

Tobi encased the nub in his warm mouth and sucked. Instantly Deidara jerked, a small moan slipping out before he bit his lip to stifle any farther noises.

Tobi smirked at the artist's attempt while raising his left hand, his fingers trailing up the skin feather like till he reached the other nipple. With his thumb and forefinger he kneaded the little nub, succeeding in bringing moans from the teen.

Deidara cursed inwardly and was sure his face heated farther in embarrassment, if it was at all possible. "T-tobi!" he gasped, the strange yet rather pleasant feelings creeping through him increasing.

Tobi hummed, earning another jerk as the vibration shot through the blond. He pulled away with one last lick, his eye trailing to the heavily blushing face, and screwed shut blue eyes.

He smirked at the sight before setting his attention on the blue pants. His smirk widened as he noticed the blond's arousal through the material. He hooked his fingers beneath the material and pulled them down, boxers and all in one quick movement, leaving Deidara bare before him.

Deidara gasped sharply as the cool air hit his semi hard member and he swallowed thickly, his heart speeding up, feeling so _vulnerable_.

Tobi appraised the blond for a few moments, before trailing a finger down the length, softly, feather like, earning a jerk and a shuddering gasp. With a relatively wide smirk, he wrapped his hand around the semi hardened member and pumped it.

"Ah…" Deidara moaned, before snapping his mouth tightly shut in a vain attempt at stifling his noises. His body trembled, he'd never felt anything like this before…

"You're so cute." Tobi cooed, his free hand twitching as his erection started to become frustrating, but he wasn't about to rush things.

Deidara ignored the words far too focused on the incredible feeling, his head tilted back as he panted heavily.

Tobi bent down and captured Deidara's mouth roughly, earning a small unidentifiable noise before slipping his tongue inside.

Deidara tentatively kissed back, his hands digging into the sheet.

Tobi explored the moist cavern, running his tongue over teeth and gums before meeting Deidara's tongue and proceeded to engage it in a dance.

Finally he pulled away to allow the artist to breathe, as he used his free hand to remove his erection from its confinement.

As Deidara struggled to regulate his breathing, which wouldn't happen due to the ministrations being done down below, Tobi held up three fingers to the artist's mouth. "Suck."

Deidara opened his eyes slowly, blinking a few times as his vision was blocked by several pale fingers. He raised a thin eyebrow as Tobi repeated, "Suck."

With a slow blink Deidara hesitantly allowed Tobi to press his fingers into his mouth and did as instructed.

As Deidara sucked, Tobi removed his hand from around Deidara's erection earning a small whine, while running his fingers down a firm thigh.

Finally Tobi pulled his fingers from the blond's mouth when he felt that they had been coated enough. Trailing the wet fingers down the well-defined chest before he spread the blond's legs who squeaked but uttered no protest. Settling between Deidara's legs he propped them up and pressed one wet finger at the puckered hole and pushed in slowly, feeling the tight ring constrict around his finger.

Deidara tensed instantly, his hands starting to hurt from the constant pressure. He jerked with a small surprised cry as Tobi slid his finger inside.

After sliding in and out Tobi pushed in another, earning a flinch and a grunt. He spread his fingers in different directions, scissoring and stretching the virgin walls. Tobi shuddered in pleasure, impatient to sheath himself in his blond.

Deidara drew a shuddering breath, as Tobi prepared him, his eyes clamped shut.

Finally Tobi inserted the third and final finger, at this Deidara shouted, ending in a strained whimper. Once Tobi felt the artist was prepared enough he removed all three of his fingers. He gathered the blond's legs, propping them onto his shoulders, pressing his aching member against Deidara's entrance.

Deidara felt his heart sky rocket, panic shooting through his veins. Before inwardly berating himself, no he could do this!

Tobi bent down, trailing his tongue up Deidara's cheek before murmuring softly, "Relax. This is going to hurt." He pressed his mouth against Deidara's quivering ones, "Do you want to stop?" the blond was rigid and his expression held panic. He didn't want to do this if Deidara wasn't ready.

Deidara jolted inwardly, appreciation washing over him, the fact that Tobi was truly willing to stop right now if he so wished meant a lot. "N-no un." He'd feel just the same if he stopped, prolonging this wouldn't help, just serve to give him anxiety.

Tobi blinked with a light frown, "Are you sure?"

Deidara lay there panting for a few tense, silent moments before opening his eyes and locking gazes with Tobi's one visible red one and nodded.

Tobi stared deeply into the blue orb, seeing the certainty and determination and nodded in turn. "Relax." He repeated. "It'll hurt more otherwise."

As he finished Deidara struggled to do so, the last thing he wanted was to make the pain worse. Sucking deeply, he exhaled, until he finally relaxed a little. A fraction before Tobi preceded Deidara snaked his arms around Tobi, his hands clenching tightly into the dark material, holding tightly.

Tobi nodded, grabbing onto thin hips, eye fixed to Deidara's face, and thrusted all the way in. Deidara shouted as the unbearable, impossible pain swept over him and he jerked mildly in a sad attempt to get away, tears streaming down his face.

Fuck! It hurt! He couldn't recall ever feeling something this painful before. It felt like he was being torn in half.

Tobi stayed still to allow Deidara to adjust, bending down he ran his tongue over the wet cheeks, licking away the dew drops before brushing his mouth over a trembling one and kissing the artist, searingly, hoping to help distract him.

Deidara swallowed, before kissing back, trying to solely focus on working his mouth against Tobi's.

Tobi settled his hands besides Deidara's head, holding himself up, as he released the artist's mouth. As Deidara panted, trying to regain some air, Tobi lightly nibbled on the blond's ear, who shuddered.

"Relax." Tobi reiterated again. If Deidara stayed this tense he didn't even want to _try_ to move.

Deidara grunted, his hands still firmly wrapped around the older male, holding so tightly that his knuckles were white, as he choked out, "B-but it hurts." his voice thick with tears.

Shifting some of his weight so that he was resting on one arm instead of both, he lightly brushed at Deidara's hair, then caressed the soft cheek, before placing it back against the bed. "I know, but it'll get better." But for that to happen he kind of had to move.

Deidara panted heavily, not really wanting to relax, but figured that the pain wasn't about to leave and it'd just spring back up once Tobi moved anyway. So with massive effort and glaring Deidara slowly, marginally relaxed.

Tobi nodded, and slowly pulled out wincing at the cry from his blond before thrusting in, hoping to hit Deidara's prostrate, the one spot that would drive the other crazy.

Deidara grunted and gasped with each thrust, waiting for it to start to feel good. His body rocking lightly with each thrust from the usually masked nin, his fingers digging into the dark, black shirt.

Tobi shifted, his angle changing and he thrusted, Deidara jerked his eyes snapping open as he cried out in rapture rocking his hips to create more friction.

_Holy! _Deidara thought at the sudden incredible feeling.

Tobi smirked at finally finding it and proceeded to hit that spot from then on.

Deidara panted and moaned pleasure replacing the pain; his eyes closed as he gasped out, "T-tobi…"

Fuck…

He'd never felt anything like this before… it was… it felt… fuck! It felt _so_ good. Deidara realized, his arms tightening farther around the older male.

Tobi wasted no time in pounding into the blond's tight ass, occasionally kissing Deidara wherever he could reach as he claimed the teen.

He shifted slightly, his erection sliding in deeper, his thrusting becoming quicker and sloppier as time moved on. He leaned down burying his face into the slender neck, feeling the vibrations of Deidara's moans and screams of pleasure. He snaked his free hand down and began stroking the blond's neglected member, earning a startled gasp as his moans increased.

He pumped the member in time with his thrusts, feeling his climax approaching, and he knew the blond was close as well.

Suddenly Deidara arched forward, coming beautifully moments later onto their chests. He felt the teen's walls tightening, his tight entrance constricting around Tobi's throbbing member, and he slammed into his blond. The Uchiha moaned Deidara's name into his ear, thrusting as deep as he could before releasing his seed deep inside his blond, causing the other to cry out and shiver slightly.

Tobi pulled out, earning a whimper as he did so, then placed the teen's legs back onto the bed and settled besides the heavily panting blond and wrapped his arms gently yet possessively around the lithe form, nuzzling his face in the smaller male's soft hair.

Deidara blinked as his breathing slowly evened before he snuggled closer with a small yawn. A wave of tiredness swept over him and he closed his eyes. Tobi ran his hand soothingly through the long blond hair.

Just as Deidara was about to fall asleep Tobi murmured with quiet conviction, "I love you… Deidara."

Deidara blinked, a small frown forming, while a warm sensation spread through his body at the words another felt somewhat cold and unsure. He didn't think he felt quite the same yet… but he did know that he cared about Tobi and that Tobi made him feel like no one had ever made him feel.

It may not be love right now but he felt that it would be…

Tobi ran a hand through the long hair, "Worth it?" after a small silence, when it was clear that Deidara wasn't going to say anything.

Deidara blinked, tilting his head back to glance up at the other's face, a frown marring his features. _Worth it…_ Overall it had been an amazing experience, what was pleasure without pain?

A light grin formed across his face, and he pressed his face back into Tobi's black shirt and let sleep claim him.

As Deidara's breathing evened, Tobi smiled softly before shifting the blond out of his hold. As much as he wanted to stay holding his blond, to soak in this moment, he had to go take care of Mr. idiotic.

Once proper, and with one last glance at the sleeping teen, he disappeared from the room.

Finding the self-absorbed male wasn't too hard; he was talking to a group about the day's earlier events and his plans for getting the stunningly beautiful blond. They were near a little café and a bar; chances were each person was a little buzzed at least.

Instead of approaching the infuriating male, Tobi stuck to the shadows and edged closer. He had no business with any of the other people and he didn't need to attract or alert more than was necessary. So he positioned himself in a way that allowed the dense, male to catch sight of him. He was sure that the minute he did, he would make some excuse and leave, not saying anything important and confront him. After all if _Shin_ wanted Deidara so much then he'd _have_ to go through him. Judging from earlier, Shin didn't consider him as much of a threat. He would clearly not be worried or afraid, unless the punch from earlier had knocked some sense into him but he doubted that.

And when Shin entered the small alleyway, Tobi knew for sure that his punch hadn't knocked any sense into him.

A wide, smug grin was etched onto the idiot's face but before he could voice something ridiculous or infuriating Tobi grabbed him by the neck roughly, shoving him into the wall.

Shin emitted chocking sounds yet his eyes held no terror yet.

"What?" Shin managed to gasp out, one hand gripping the black clad arm, his other remaining at his side. "Did the blond come to his senses?" A smirking grin slowly formed despite the tight, almost suffocating force on his neck.

Tobi's eye narrowed behind his mask, strongly wanting to just crush the idiotic male's windpipe but he _wanted _Shin to suffer. No one came onto _his_ blond and no one looked at Deidara in such a way the Shin did. Leeringly. And no one got away with belittling him… at least no one who he couldn't kill.

But anything physical was bound to draw out loud, piercing screams and that would attract attention. So he lifted up his spiraled orange mask with a growl in his deep, velvety voice," "No one would come to their senses when it came to _you._"

Now there was fear in Shin's eyes, Tobi reveled in it and it only increased as his gaze met the red eyes of the sharingan. Shin attempted to speak but his fear had paralyzed his ability to do so and in a matter of moments he was brought into an elaborate, painful jutsu, when that as always seemed to last for an eternity but in reality didn't take but a moment.

Shin died a slow, agonizing death, and Tobi couldn't be more satisfied. He let the deceased body crumple to the dirty ground, befitting for one such as him.

That taken care of he returned to the crappy hotel, taking the blond into his arms and buried his mask less face into long golden hair, contentment washing over him.

~88

Deidara pressed his forehead farther into the solid yet soft object while wrapping his left arm around the warm item unconsciously.

Tobi smiled at the display, he hadn't felt this happy in a _long_ time nor had had this wonderful feeling of contentment before. He could just envision more days like this, a night of love making, waking up and just laying here enjoying the warmth and holding his blond close, forgetting everything else for this small perfect moment.

It was just a shame that at this point in time that was the problem, time. His time with Deidara was short, fleeting. He was immortal, Deidara was not. Deidara could die, he could not. Deidara could age, he could not.

All of this had slammed into his reality the moment Deidara nearly killed himself, and he had been looking for a solution since. But he was no closer than when he had started… well that wasn't necessarily true. He did have one option, but he wasn't quite sure _how_ to go about doing it or if it would ultimately work. There _was_ a strong possibility of it working, in theory but also a risk in doing it.

But as with a lot of things, risk was inevitable. Still he'd prefer to find something else, if there _was _something else, he would find it. Until then he wouldn't consider it as a valid option. But he had to find something soon, because the longer he didn't the longer Deidara's chances of dying increased.

Deidara groaned quietly as his mind came into awareness, he really didn't feel like moving, he was warm and comfortable.

His eyes opened slowly, a little sluggishly, his vision meeting pale, smooth skin. Deidara blinked a few times before the reality of last night struck him. He'd had sex! His face immediately blotched with red, a slice of nerves working their way down his spine. How did one act after such an activity? It left him feeling uncomfortable and strange yet they had both seen and done the same thing.

So other than the usual unease that he felt around Tobi since the raven's initial declaration; there really wasn't much to worry over. The experience had been amazing and he didn't regret it. So he shouldn't let this affect him in any bad way.

Still, irritatingly he couldn't rid himself of the red that flared across his face. It certainly didn't help that he was _naked_ and pressed against a bare-chested…

Deidara blinked, as his eyes retook in the pale skin in his vision. Pale… not black. Hadn't Tobi been wearing his black shirt when they went to sleep? He sure had it on during… Deidara inwardly scowled as he felt his face heat farther. He'd been clenching the dark material, and after he was quite sure that Tobi hadn't removed it…

Yet he clearly had.

Huh…

Deidara shrugged inwardly, it wasn't like Tobi missing his shirt was a big deal.

Closing his eyes, he pressed his forehead into the pale skin. A few moments passed and his eyes flickered back open as his fingers twitched at the vague curiosity he'd had a while back.

Licking his mildly dry lips, he shifted the arm under him; just enough to move his fingers and reach the pale skin. He wanted to see if Tobi's skin was as soft as it looked.

Disregarding to find out whether Tobi was awake or not, he lightly, slowly brushed the pale skin. He hummed lowly at his revelation, Tobi's skin _was_ soft. It was kind of odd, considering how defined and solid it looked and felt.

"Sleep well?" Tobi asked, breaking into Deidara's musing.

Deidara blinked, the dumbass w_as_ awake. He grunted in reply. If Tobi was awake then there was a good chance that they would be heading out very soon, a shame too, as he wanted to go back to sleep. He had no desire what so ever to move, as there was a dull burning throb in his lower region and he was sure that walking would hardly be fun.

It was no surprise, it _had_ hurt tremendously. And doing something new added to it, his body wasn't accustomed to such activity.

Shaking off his thoughts, Deidara closed his eyes and remained silent. If he made no effort to move or talk perhaps they'd stay here like this longer.

Tobi trailed his right hand up and gently ran his ungloved hand through golden hair, before pulling the blond's head back and capturing the other's lips in a quick, chaste kiss.

Deidara blinked, by the time his brain processed he was being kissed, Tobi was already pulling away.

Tobi removed his hand from the long hair, "We need to get going."

Deidara frowned, inwardly trying to stop the disappointment from showing.

Tobi unwound himself from his blond and sat up, "Do you want to take a shower?" He really didn't need one, and if he did take one, it would save time if they took one together but ultimately he was sure they'd lose time if they showered together. So he opted to not bother. Then again…

His one unwrapped eye drifted over the blond's face, he could take one and let Deidara rest longer. As he was aware that he was hurting a little. If he could afford the loss of time he'd just let Dei sleep the rest of the day but he couldn't.

"I'll take one first. You can take one after if you want to." After the nod, he stood and disappeared into the bathroom.

Deidara pressed his face into the bland sheets with a sigh.

However, no matter which way he shifted he couldn't get comfortable now that Tobi was gone, along with the extra body warmth.

Grunting with irritation Deidara vaguely heard the water start. His mind going straight to the fact that Tobi was now naked and _wet_. A deep royal flush consumed his face and he pressed his face deeper into the somewhat soft sheets.

Somehow his thoughts rounded to the pale face that had once been an orange spiraled mask when he thought of Tobi. The mask had always been the sole representation that identified Tobi as Tobi. It was still weird to have an actual face to put to Tobi.

But he was glad that he finally knew what the raven looked like.

Though… there was the covered eye.

He had noticed, vaguely that the white strips of bandages had been removed when they took a shower together. He had spotted them lying limply on the small bathroom floor as he was getting dressed.

It made him wonder what all of Tobi's face looked like, as a whole. Was there a deep scar on his hidden eye? Perhaps just a black hole where the eye once resided…

He had always believed that Tobi lost his eye, seeing as he went around wearing a mask with only one single whole for years.

But why wear the strips of bandages when he already wore a mask? They couldn't possibly be doing any help… if the incident had taken place years ago, which it more than likely did, if it was indeed an injury, since he had the orange mask for years.

Perhaps Tobi just felt more comfortable wearing them, having something covering his eye…

Deidara frowned, contemplating on asking, his curiosity far too strong to simply ignore. Plus he had already seen Tobi's face, so surely Tobi wouldn't mind showing him his hidden eye… or at least telling him why/how he lost his eye or whatever it was.

"Still awake?" A soft childish voice spoke interrupting Deidara's musings.

Deidara's eyes opened as he shifted enough to glance over to the raven, who was dressed already in his usual black. His black spiky hair damp, giving it a matted look and the white strips of bandages already in place, much to Deidara's aggravation.

Now would be a good time, no sense in procrastinating. It would just serve to bug him.

Shifting around so that he was facing the usually masked nin, the orange mask was still resting on the rickety night stand and murmured with an imploring look, "Tobi?"

The currently unmasked nin blinked, his visible brow raising, slightly surprised. He suddenly felt unease sweep through him, and vastly hoped that Deidara didn't regret having sex. Had he perhaps been too hasty? He hadn't felt so; Deidara had even affirmed he wanted to twice.

Brushing the thought to the back of his mind, he replied with none of his unease, "Yes, Senpai?"

Deidara lightly frowned, quickly contemplating the best way to word things before spewing out, "Why do you wear bandages, un?"

Tobi's visible eye widened slightly in surprise and mild shock, that certainly was not what he had been expecting to come from the blond's mouth. Well that was certainly better than the artist being upset with having sex.

Sighing heavily, he ruffled his short spiky hair before answering, "I like to." Usually he tended to wrap the bandages around his forehead but as of late he'd taken to wrapping it around his hidden eye. After all it wasn't like he could see out of his mask and he was often wearing it that it had become pointless to not wrap his eye.

Deidara blinked a few times in light surprise. Out of everything, that is not what he had been expecting. Frowning as he settled more weight into his arms he hummed out slowly, "But why hmm?" Tobi's response didn't tell him squat.

Tobi cocked his head back, his visible eye riveted to the feminine face in consternation. Why was Deidara suddenly so interested? He shrugged lightly, before shuffling over to the worn night stand, picking up his gloves and began pulling one on.

"My mask only has one eye hole, so I started to wrap my eye instead of just my forehead." He glanced at the ex rock nin as he finished pulling on his gloves.

Deidara frowned lightly with a low hum, his eyes still bluntly boring into the raven. Sitting up, mindful to keep the sheet situated on him, wincing slightly at the sharp jolt at doing so, he asked slowly, "So your eye is fine?"

Tobi blinked, his eyebrow shooting up in startlement, is that what this is about? Slowly he nodded, affirming in his deep tone, "Yes. I chose my current mask as a way to deceive others. After all no one would believe that I have two eyes if I'm wearing a mask sporting one whole. It's… an ace." As a criminal it was a given to have lots of enemies, it never hurt to have a backup. Plus not using his covered eye was a good way in strengthening it. Not that he really needed to do so.

Deidara's mouth dropped a little as he blinked surprised, his eyes dropping from the pale face. Well that wasn't what he had been expecting. A frown graced his features, darn; a part of him had hoped that he at least had some interesting scar or something.

"That… disappointing, Senpai?" Tobi questioned, noting the frown. He crossed his arms, trying to gauge the reason behind the frown.

Deidara straightened, lifting a mouthed hand to brush some of his long hair behind him. "No…," he uttered slowly, while giving a shake of his head. Forehead creasing he returned his focus back to the raven's face, ignoring the mildly displeased look.

"Can I see, un?"

Tobi jolted a little, plain surprise shooting through him. He eyed the firm, curious expression with a small frown. What did it matter?

Sighing Tobi shuffled the few paces to the bed and settled down on the edge, his body angled towards the artist. Swiftly he unwound the thin strips, letting them fall limply onto his lap before opening his closed eye. A gleam of red filtering through for a single moment before opening fully and connecting to the one visible blue orb.

Deidara's forehead creased as his eye surveyed the area that had previously been hidden, noting no scars just plain smooth skin. Tobi's eye was just as fine as his other one.

Huh…

While he was for sure a little disappointed, the rest of him was glad that Tobi hadn't suffered some massive scarring to his face or eye, not that it would have bothered him if he had.

His fingers twitched, itching to reach out and touch, to feel Tobi's face, but he resisted, just barely.

"Satisfied?" Tobi questioned, his tone deep.

Deidara couldn't tell if the other was annoyed or mad at showing him. He brushed it off, offering a small genuine smile accompanying a nod. He was glad that he now had a whole picture to put to Tobi.

Tobi felt what little irritation he had bleed out of him at the smile on the blond's face. Glancing away from the other he spoke with some prompting, "We need to get going," reminding the artist, a part of him sure that Deidara was mostly trying to stall for time. But even if that was the case, he could understand…

Deidara sighed heavily at those words, really not wanting to move, just sitting up had sent pain through him; he knew it would be more prominent standing and walking. Unfortunately he was certain that Tobi wasn't going to let him stay in bed.

He bit his lip, debating on asking but one glace at the dressed nin derailed the question. As he went to shuffle out from under the sheet, temptation surged back into him. The compelling urge too strong this time, Deidara reached out and slowly, hesitantly brushed his fingers over the pale cheek.

Tobi jolted in shock and surprise, his head whipping around to face the artist.

The action caused Deidara's fingers to slide across the smooth skin before hitting air. Not sure what to make of Tobi's expression, Deidara snorted huffily, "What un?"

Tobi blinked with a light shake of his head, "Nothing… Senpai." He stared for a few moments, sending uneasiness down Deidara's spine, making him think he'd crossed a line or something. But knew that was absurd. He gathered Tobi was simply surprised and somewhat shocked at the gesture. After all he didn't usually touch Tobi unless it was to hit him, so it shouldn't be unusual that Tobi was surprised.

Mildly annoyed at the continued staring, Deidara dropped his gaze to the bland sheet before gripping it. Before flinging it off he pursed his lips and gave the dark nin a side glance. Noting that he was still staring, several mounds of nerves plowed through him. He was _naked_… a blush flared onto his features and he scowled. It was simply not enticing to have Tobi watch him get dressed, simply uncomfortable.

No matter how absurd that was, seeing as they'd had _sex_ together and Tobi had already seen him naked anyways.

Tobi, sensing the blond's discomfort, averted his gaze. Picking up the bandages he began rewrapping them. Just as he went to position a strip over his eye he paused and with quick debate only wrapped the strips around his forehead, leaving both eyes visible.

The mattress dipped as Deidara stood with a small noise of pain, but Tobi pointedly didn't look in the blond's direction, knowing that the other wanted privacy. He settled his attention on the rickety night stand and picked up his orange swirled mask. With a small hum he fixed it onto his face.

Resting his arms on his legs, Tobi asked with a light smirk, "Want some help getting dressed, Senpai?"

Deidara froze in the action of gathering clean clothes, the red on his face increasing as a scowl fixed to his face as he snapped out somewhat shrilly, "No, un!"

Tobi chuckled, the deep tone sending shivers down Deidara's spine. Scoffing Deidara focused intently on his clothes.

Standing Tobi made his way towards the door, opening it, "I'll meet you outside, Senpai." And not sparing the artist a look or waiting for a response exited while pulling the door closed with a loud squeak.

~ End Chapter 14

Really long chap…

Sorry if the death of Shin was disappointing, but I originally summed Tobi killing him in a few sentences as I just wanted to move along. But a few people expressed in wanting to read it so I wrote a scene. It didn't come out entirely the way I wanted… but I'm tired of messing with it.

Note – in the next lemon Dei will be more involved. (I should know it's already written)

It is too much of a pain to do another sight so, I have decided to just keep the lemon in the story though the link will remain and can still be read on my other sight but future lemons will probably be found only here but I _may_ post elsewhere.

Posted: 11/13/2012


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

Note – there **will **be character deaths (But I can guarantee it won't be Deidara or Tobi)

Sigh… I don't know why I'm bothering… this pairing has died down, hardly anyone else is posting stories of them… its depressing

Beta'ed by **JJKMagic – **thanks!

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 15 – To Despair

He couldn't… couldn't believe it… he'd actually _beaten_ Pein!

Naruto gasped as his legs wobbled. They felt like jelly, but he paid it little mind as he stared fixatedly at the bunch of rumble that housed the orange haired male. His rasengan had slammed the male into the strong, stone slab of rock and buried him.

Pein, the leader of the Akatsuki, was dead.

Some part of him felt relief, Pein had destroyed the Leaf, killed his friends, civilians, spent _years _hunting him… and now… now he was dead, the man responsible for the loss of his home. Relief was very prominent but the rest of him didn't feel better, didn't _feel_ satisfied. Pein's death wouldn't change anything…

The Leaf was still gone, his friends who died were still gone… and the rest of the Akatsuki would still, no doubt, pursue him. That alone was enough to leave him feeling empty, depressed.

Naruto's hand slammed into his chest, crinkling his already crinkled jacket, clenching tightly with a hiss as his eyes fell shut.

Why was the world so horrible!? Why did anger and hate consume and destroy people?

A loud, rattling noise broke his despairing thoughts, his head shot up from the light bow it had been in, his blue eyes snapping open to land on the rumble before him.

Small stones tumbled down, clattering onto the barren ground. Naruto's breath hitched, his mouth falling agape.

No! It can't be!

More rocks rolled down, meeting the ground.

If Naruto had the energy, he would have stumbled back, as it were; he only managed a light jerk, almost teetering off balance before steadying himself, as he stared in horror at the falling stones.

He's dead! The rasengan killed him!

The rocks exploded outward, and in the billowing dust, stood the orange haired leader of the Akatsuki, Pein. Blood leaked from his stomach, where the rasengan met his skin, his clothing was even more tattered, and small gashes ran down his arms.

His rinnegan eyes were piercing straight through the blond, who stood frozen with shock and fear.

Pein took a small step towards the still form, jolting Naruto's brain into function. His arm dropped from his shirt and he raised them in a vain attempt at defense, as he gasped shakily, "H-how…?"

"I suspected you might use your clones to throw you." The spiky haired male stated, taking another step. "Your attacks failed, and your chakra is all but used up, you have nothing left to fight with. You have lost."

Naruto trembled, he hadn't felt this much fear in a long time, nor this useless. He couldn't… he couldn't just give up! There had to be some way… But Pein was right, he had nothing left… and he couldn't count on anyone coming to aid him…

Naruto's eyes closed tightly as they watered, why!? How could it come to this…?

Pein eyed the teen, would he try to fight? He approached cautiously, despite the fact that he was certain the kid had no surprises left, no chakra after all, but that didn't mean a leaf nin couldn't show up, like that hyuga girl.

He was so close, he wasn't going to botch it, or let anyone else do so.

Naruto straightened, his eyes opening with renewed determination. He would _try_ no matter how bleak things were. He refused to give up! He made a familiar hand sign, channeling what little chakra he had left, and with a small 'poof' like sound, produced a sickly looking clone. It wobbled for a second before slowly descending to the dirt ground, looking so very pitiful.

Naruto grimaced; he hadn't made such a horrible clone in years!

"Humph!" Pein voiced in response to the blond's ridiculous effort.

_NO!_ Naruto shouted inwardly, frantically, as Pein made it within arm's reach of him.

Slowly, but confidently, Pein reached out to take hold of the jinchuuriki, his eyes boring into the young whiskered face, ready for any attack the other should try. Just as his fingers brushed the black and orange jacket, his sense's flared and he jerked back, narrowly avoiding the several kuni that would have imbedded into his side had he not moved.

Naruto took this chance to stumble back, quickly putting as much distance between him and the rinnegan wielder as possible.

Pein's eye twitched in annoyance at the disruption, he was getting pissed with all the little delays! A brown haired male landed besides the worn, trembling teen.

Gasping, Naruto's eyes rounded with shock, surprise and relief.

"Yamato!"

The new arrival didn't spare the blond a glance, keeping his gaze locked on the orange male with numerous piercings.

His hands clenched tightly, that was too close! If he had been even a second later, Naruto would have been captured by the Akatsuki! When he had left Sai and Anko, and bolted back to the leaf, the seal had indicated that Naruto was in Kuuybi mode, but now he wasn't. What had happened? How had Naruto managed to revert back to normal? With a light shake of his head, he put the matter to the side for later; right now he had to deal with the pierced male before him.

_Strange though_, Yamato thought with a swift glance at their surroundings. Just barren, and rumble littered the area, where was the village? Dread shot through him, his chest tight. No! Focus, deal with the threat first then worry about everything else. Eyes hardening, Yamato debated the best way to attack. Jutsu? Or taijutsu?

Pein glared at the leaf nin with barely contained anger. It would not be wise to fight, he was low on chakra himself, and it looked like the other was quite fresh. If he were to risk it, he would be leaving the chance for other shinobi to show up, and he would not be able to handle a group. It was best to retreat, as infuriating as that was, but he had defeated the jinchuuriki he could very well do so again. Plus this little incident wasn't a complete waste; he had destroyed the leaf, crippling their force and power.

Lowering his arm, Pein straightened. "Has pain made a lasting impression on you?" The orange haired male murmured, his rippled eyes boring into wide blue eyes.

The black eyed male shifted slightly, looking ready to attack, while Naruto unwisely held the Akatsuki leader's gaze.

The next instant Pein vanished, leaving the pair to gape in surprise and shock at the sudden but not totally unexpected retreat.

Yamato jerked, quickly scanning the area, in case the other was planning a sneak attack, but he sensed nothing. He spun around as Naruto slumped, his hands fisted in the dry, dirt with his head bowed.

"Naruto!" Not waiting for a response, Yamato continued speedily, "What happened? Where's the Village? D-did you…"

The prior ANBU member trailed off at the slow shake from the sitting form. He leaned forward slightly, straining to make out the low, despaired words from the shaking form.

"D-destroyed!"

Yamato jerked back, shock riddling his features as he gaped at the teen. The village… destroyed!?

"D-did you… The Kyuubi…?" Yamato choked out shakily, slowly grasping hold of his stunned shock.

"N-no!" Naruto cried pitifully. "Pein did! It was gone by the time I got here!"

The tense, rigidness in his shoulders evaporated as mild relief flooded him. At least Naruto hadn't been responsible.

His eyes widened, Pein? The one who killed Jiraiya!? That Pein?

"Who would have thought… one individual could have done so much!" Naruto gasped out, tears trailing down his whiskered face. "He killed so many people! He killed Jiraiya!" Naruto banged his left fist hard into the unrelenting dirt, pain surging up his arm from the impact, while Yamato had his confirmation. "Why!? Why did he have to form the Akatsuki?"

Naruto's words died down, his throat tight, eyes clenched tightly shut, seeing nothing around him but the darkness behind his eyes.

Pein was the leader… and the leaf had been crushed by him… even he, who possessed the nine-tails chakra had been powerless to stop him. And if he couldn't then who could!? And what about all the other members!? They were also strong and formidable…

"Naruto," the stern voice of the other male jolted his wild thoughts; he jerked up to lock gazes with the solemn male.

"He's the leader?" From Naruto's rambling, it sure sounded like that was the case.

Naruto nodded shakily, slowly, tears still flowing down his face.

Yamato felt his chest constrict a little at the blatant despair on the kid's face, but at the moment time was short, comforting Naruto would have to wait. He looked away from the collapsed teen, gazing at the distant trees. "To do something of that magnitude and then fighting you… I'm sure it drained him considerably."

Naruto swallowed tightly, as his brain computed what the older male was suggesting.

"He can't have gotten far." Yamato returned his gaze to the blue orbs, "I'll go after him and finish the job." Capturing him, if possible at all, was left unsaid.

Naruto stared into the determined eyes of the wood user, his tears stopping as a small seed of his own determination cropped up, "I'll-"

With a quick shake of his head and voiced "No" Yamato stopped the declaration from forming.

Naruto flinched, his fists tightening in the dirt, anger and irritation welling up.

"You yourself are severely drained Naruto. It would not be wise to come. Besides the Akatsuki are after you, it would not be smart to give them a chance to grab you. Despite his state, anything can happen. You _will _stay here."

Once the nod of agreement was given, Yamato shot forward towards the trees, his destination: the leader of the Akatsuki.

~88

"We're lost." Deidara uttered with exasperation, while plunking down on a rock beneath a tall, leafy tree, ignoring the small spike of pain at doing so.

Tobi jolted, spinning around to look at the artist while scratching the top of his spiky, raven hair with his right gloved hand. "Not lost… Senpai. Just a little turned around."

"Right, un." Deidara scoffed, planting his chin in his mouthed right hand.

Tobi dropped his hand, instead crossing his arms across his chest, "I know we're somewhere in leaf…"

Deidara closed his eyes, blocking the orange wearing idiot from his view, "Right…" he drawled. "Because you insisted on taking a detour, un."

Tobi sighed, "I wanted to confirm something… You make it sound like a bad thing."

Deidara scowled but remained silent. They had set out to the land of Iron; apparently Orochimaru had an old, barley used base somewhere in the snow covered country. There was a high possibility that Kabuto was hiding out in 'said base'. But somewhere along the way Tobi had insisted once again on stopping in several small villages and taking off for a few hours, doing who knows what, while he waited to leave. Though Dei gathered it might be to check his intel…

After leaving the last run down village, they ended up having to pass through a thick, overgrown forest. It had taken them several days before they actually got somewhere different than the constantly going in circles. Now they were in a less populated tree infested area and according to Tobi, they were somewhere in the leaf, how he was sure of that Deidara wasn't sure but that still left them far from where they needed to be.

Why they couldn't just teleport was beyond him… Deidara had managed to gather something along 'what and lesson are time together?' from the masked nin. So they _walked…_ his next best idea was to fly… unfortunately that too was turned down, irritatingly enough, but the reason for it more sensible and plausible than the reason for not teleporting. Flying when they didn't know where they were, could be dangerous, could attract unwanted attention, or get around that a clay bird, or suspicious bird was in the area and alert the wrong people, more specifically, those who would know what kind of bird it was.

So now, here they were in a small, open clearing, apparently in the land of fire, nowhere near their destination and lost. Deidara grumbled inwardly, he was fed up with walking! At least in the span of doing so, the aftermath of their activity had lessened tremendously, and hardly bothered him now.

"Why don't you rest for a little while, Senpai." Tobi stated, even though it sounded like a question.

Deidara raised an eyebrow as he opened his eyes to stare at the still, usually bouncing and moving male.

"We've lost a bit of time. I need to go take care of something," Tobi murmured, almost sounding a little sheepish and a little wary. As if whatever it was, would piss Deidara off if he knew what it was. The fact that Tobi was taking off again, is what irked him, however.

Tobi quickly raised his gloved hands placating, "I know… but I wouldn't be leaving if it wasn't important. I'll only be gone for few moments, an hour tops. But it shouldn't take that long."

Deidara glared at the bright, ridiculous orange mask before sighing, Tobi would leave no matter what…

Tobi sighed lightly but knew that Dei would be pissed if he informed him that he had to check up on Sasuke and get him to head out with his team. Acquiring the eight-tails was important; getting them to do such a thing shouldn't be too hard nor take too long to entice them to do so.

If checking things and inquiring around the small villages hadn't taken longer than he would have liked, then Sasuke and his team would already be on their way. Unfortunately this also delayed them from getting to Iron, searching the snow covered country would certainly take time and they still had other things that acquired attention. At this rate he'd have to put off going to Iron to deal with everything else… still, there _was_ time. But it had been imperative to re-check things and close unfinished business.

Tobi stared solemnly at the ticked off ex-iwa nin for a few seconds, wanting to ask the teen something but no, it could wait.

"Don't go anywhere, Senpai. I won't be long." Not waiting for a reply, the orange wearing male vanished, leaving Deidara to scoff at his words in the relative quiet of the woods.

~ End

Sorry, short chapter. I tried to fit the next part in but it was far too long, it would have been about 10,000 words or so… I tried to break it down but I hate cutting in-between but the next chapter will be long. About 18 pages or so, the next chapter is almost 100 percent done; I hope to have it up in less than a month, I should have it up within a month.

So yes Pein survived, I just really hate how Naruto can beat all these older more experienced ninja's at his age. He's fifteen, sixteen and he can do Sage mode and have his clones hold the form so that he can go longer in it, or whatever it is… (I frankly despise that) But oh, he's the main character; he _has_ to be able to do all this…

Pein's reason for surviving is bland, I know, but I need/want him for something else and also I like him!

**Note** – everything happened the same – the attack on the leaf and those who died except for Kakashi. He is alive! I need him for later – he's a main character around Naruto. I didn't want to try to find someone else… (Naruto obviously didn't talk to Nagato - so just imagine that the one Pein that shot at Choji was completely down so Kakashi didn't use his Sharingan and drain himself.)

Posted: 12/10/2012


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

Note – I have decided to simply leave the lemons in the story.

Beta'ed by **JJKMagic – **thanks!

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 16 – The Startling Information

Yamato gritted his teeth as he jumped from tree to tree, going as fast as possible, hoping to catch up to the severely drained Akatsuki leader. His hands were fisted tightly as anger and sadness coursed through him. It was hard to fathom that one individual had destroyed the leaf. And yet the leaf was _gone_, wiped from existence. Civilians and shinobi: dead. But how many? How many people died today? His dark eyes narrowed, hate shining in his dark orbs as he pushed off with more force than necessary from the tree limb.

If someone had told him that the Leaf would be gone today he would have scoffed and informed them that the leaf would never fall. How idiotic and delusional of him. But he would have leaned more toward an army… a nation being capable, responsible, not one single person. It was scary indeed. That one person was so strong that he could reduce an entire nation to nothing. What made it even worse was that he was a criminal, hell bent on capturing the tailed beasts for more power and doing who knows after… probably world domination…

One person…

The Akatsuki was made up of ten members; all of them were scarily strong and formidable. Were they too able to destroy an entire village? If so things just got worse. How could they ever hope to beat the Akatsuki then? And if they succeeded in capturing all the tailed beasts, then he was sure that it would be all over. No way that the Leaf… what's left of it would be able to stand up to them, let alone the other nations. Huffing angrily, Yamato put more energy into his legs; whipping past and under leaves and stray branches.

Damn it! Surely he didn't lose him? The guy was injured and more than likely severely low on chakra, so where was he? Was he perhaps going the wrong way?

He blinked as he noted a small break in the throng of trees up ahead, indicating a possible clearing. He halted a few feet from entering, eyes surveying the area, his ears straining for uncommon sound. After a few tense moments, Yamato frowned, debating if he should send in a wood clone. For all he knew Pein had discovered him tracking him and was waiting to ambush him or had left something waiting. Scoffing Yamato shook his head, it wasn't worth taking the time, if he died for it then so be it. With that in mind he propelled forward, breaking through the last of the trees and into the clearing.

His guard up, Yamato quickly scanned the area. The ground was slightly barren, and littered with sticks and leaves, as was common in a forest. Light bird noises sounded in the distant. A familiar tingle clawed at his senses and his eyes alighted to the slender form sitting at the other end of the small spacious area. Bright blond hair was the first thing that stood out, probably since a good portion covered one side of the feminine face. The one visible eye was cobalt blue and almond shaped, and the most striking thing about the lone ninja was the garb he was wearing, the dark cloak with red clouds.

Yamato's breath hitched, this was an Akatsuki member! Was this Pein's partner? Akatsuki members usually traveled in pairs, and Pein had been alone so it was possible. Unless Pein's partner had been killed during the assault or simply did not tag along… Keeping most of his focus on the blond, Yamato surveyed the rest of the area thoroughly, seeing neither hide nor hair of the orange haired male. It looked like the blond was alone.

Yamato settled his complete attention on the sitting form beneath the thick leafy tree. There was no visible forehead protector but if he remembered right there was only one blond in the Akatsuki. But hadn't he died…? His forehead creased, a few tense seconds ticked by before his eyes widened with enlightenment. This was-! Yamato swallowed thickly as he derailed the thought, he didn't have time to waste! He had to find Pein.

Deidara raised an eyebrow at the brown haired male that broke into the small clearing, muttering dryly, "I don't suppose you would mind telling me which direction holds civilization hmm?"

Yamato jerked from his musing, a frown situating on his tense features. "Where is Pein?" Yamato demanded sharply, disregarding the blond's question.

The blond blinked, his head tilting to the side a little, "Pein? What makes you think I know this Pein person?"

Yamato's frown deepened, his fists clenching tighter, almost causing pain to throb as he snapped heatedly, "You're in the Akatsuki! You have the cloak of clouds on, which is what all Akatsuki members wear! Tell me which way he went!"

A light frown flittered onto the blond's passive features, his one visible blue eye boring into the furious face of the leaf nin as he hummed, "You're very angry. What did Pein do?" It wasn't like he really cared, there were several things he could think of that Pein had done. Killing someone the leaf nin was close to, perhaps even capturing the jinchuuriki, though he doubted that.

His words seemed to startle the black eyed male as light surprise and stupefaction flittered across the pale face.

Yamato jerked forward a pace, his wide eyes staring in shock at the sitting form as he choked out, "Y-you don't know…?" Yamato studied what he could see of the blond's face with little insight, anger washing over him, "How can you not know!? You're a member!"

Deidara blinked a few times, as he straightened his back, arms resting casually on his knees, "Just because I'm a member, doesn't make me privy to everything hmm." And really it was absurd that the leaf nin would be so foolish to believe so. He had to at least be a jounin… perhaps his anger and possible grief was overpowering his ability to think clearly. There were lots of ninja and civilians alike that let their emotions grasp the better of them. It would seem this individual fell into that category.

Yamato blinked rapidly, his features loosing the furious anger, leaving surprise, shock and disbelief. He staggered forward another pace, apparently not overly concerned in getting to close to the criminal, "Was it not planned…?"

Deidara sighed, giving a slow blink and reiterated, "What did Pein do?"

Yamato's features hardened like ice as he spat, "He… he destroyed the leaf! It's gone!" Just by saying it caused the anger and sadness to slam back into him, almost suffocating him with the force and severity of the emotion.

Deidara angled his head back slightly, giving a half lidded look to the male with anger plastered back onto his features, "Oh?" He blinked with a hum, surprise and mild shock flickering through him before adding, "Someone must have really ticked him off if he went to the trouble." He paused as his eye narrowed, keeping intense surveillance of the distraught leaf nin, waiting for any attack should or when he decided to strike. "But then again, it's not like it's overly hard to do, he already deeply despised the leaf… has for years." While Pein had never out right said so, there were little hints and clues that indicated so. That and he had been exceedingly fortunate several years ago to overhear part of a conversation between Pein and Konan about his dislike of the leaf.

Yamato gaped for a split second, befuddlement situating on his features as he, in anger snapped his right arm out in a heated gesture, "You may be a member… but he's the leader!" It was hard to comprehend that Pein destroying the leaf hadn't been planned. Even though a part of his brain poked at him, telling him that the blond could be lying but why lie about something like this?

Yamato shook his head, reiterating, "Pein is the leader!" The blond before him was a member, not the leader, not the one responsible for destroying the leaf. He was wasting time. "Tell me which way he went!" The longer he stood here conversing with the blond the longer the trail grew cold. And he would be damned if he wasted this opportunity. Because who knew when Pein would be in such a state again? This could be his… the leaf's only chance.

Deidara leaned forward, pressing a bit of his weight into his arms that were settled on his legs as he hummed out casually, disinterestedly, "in any normal circumstance I would tell you, but since it isn't…" Deidara pushed upward, standing as he continued, "If I let you by, Pein will yell at me." Pein was injured and low on chakra, he'd certainly get an earful if he didn't kill the leaf nin, and if not from Pein, more than likely from Tobi.

Yamato growled, "Why would that matter to you? You didn't join willingly. I could understand if he was going to kill you for letting me through but over something like this! I doubt it."

Deidara's cobalt eye narrowed sharply at those words yet kept a light smirk on his face, "You make it sound as if members killing each other is unheard of… No he can't afford to kill any members, not at this point in time." Not when things were winding down on the tailed beast search.

Deidara brought up his hands, watching as the unnamed leaf nin opened his mouth but didn't get to voice whatever it was as he made his customary hand sign, shouting, "Katsu!" A wonderful explosion engulfed the stationary brown haired male.

Smoke, from the explosion puffed out, but a frown replaced his smirk as his visible blue eye slithered away from the smoke cloud to settle on the alive leaf nin. Deidara twitched lightly that the black eyed male had managed to avoid his explosion, he'd set up a few sentries when Tobi had taken off for something like this and still his attack had been avoided. With an irritated grunt, Deidara flung his Akatsuki cloak flap up and snaked his right hand into his open grey clay patch, quickly devouring the substance.

"Wait!" Yamato shouted as Deidara brought up his hand, preparing to bring his newly created bird to life. "I want to talk to you!" If the blond wasn't going to let him by without a fight then he would use this chance to talk to him.

Deidara scoffed, but stilled any farther action as he muttered, "About what? We have never met…" Of that he was sure, this was a leaf nin and he had only met so many of them. This one did not stand out, his voice did not strike familiarity, no he had never met this particular leaf nin. So what could this brown haired male possibly have to say to him? Then again what did he care? He was an enemy; he shouldn't be stopping to hear what this frantic nin had to say. With that in mind Deidara prepared to grow his bird.

Seeing this Yamato burst forth as rapidly as his mouth would allow, "It-It's about your family!"

Deidara paused; surprise and shock rippling through him, and unable to stop himself uttered in befuddlement, "What family?" His eyebrow rose, a part of his shocked brain certain this was just for the leaf nin to buy time, "I don't have one, un." A frown situated on his face, as his head lowered a little but still mindful of keeping the other in his line of sight.

Family…? Sure at one point he'd had one, because he'd been born, he was here and alive, so someone obviously had given birth to him. But they were dead now… or they were alive and obviously didn't want him.

Yamato swallowed tightly, his arms raised before him, ready to perform a defensive jutsu should he loose the blond's attention and get attacked.

"At one point you did." Yamato uttered slowly, cautiously, unknowingly voicing the blond's previous thought. He jolted a little as the blond's eyebrow twitched and knew the other was annoyed at him stating the obvious. He disregarded that however as the blond made no move of his hands and plowed on, "I… and the leaf, know that you grew up as an orphan and were majorly disliked…" Yamato paused as he eyed the teen's features, knowing of the blond's short temper. Dislike… was an understatement. The blond had been hated, verbally abused, in many ways, it was a surprise that the kid hadn't bolted from the rock sooner than he did.

When the blond remained still he finished with a knowing tone, "You were trained by the Tsuchikage." Yamato could only imagine what it would be like to be trained by the military troll. He did not envy those who were but knew that it was also a privilege. A part of the reason the blond was so skilled was probably due to the rough and tiring regiments the Tsuchikage employed, though the blond was a genius in his own right too.

Deidara frowned sharply, how could this leaf nin know he was trained by that old gnome? He was sure the old bat would never mention it; he would rather not have any ties to him. But what about the rest, none of it was useful information and he couldn't believe that it had been put into his bio information. None of that was relevant. So why did this leaf nin know? Why did the _leaf_ know?

As if reading the blonds mind Yamato plowed on, "A while back Jiraiya found evidence… how I'm not quite sure on all the details, but he had a copy that stated your blood family." Had being the key word, the document had not been fortunate enough to survive the destruction of the leaf, of that he was sure.

Deidara's frown deepened, his forehead creased and his body tensed as he stared heatedly into the brown haired male's pale face. His mind snagged on the words, vastly drawn to them. He was far too curious now to put a stop to the words even if they were more than likely a lie.

Yamato noticed he had the blond's complete attention causing some of the tightness to drain from his body, but of course he still remained high alert. Heaving heavily to calm his jilted nerves, Yamato flexed his fingers, shuffling a pace before continuing, least he loose the artist's attention. "The Tsuchikage has an original if you don't believe me." Yamato paused, eyeing the other's face, trying to see if the blond believed him or if he simply believed him to be simply stalling for time. However he couldn't glean squat on what the blond was thinking, he was frowning but otherwise nothing telling showed. With a light, quick sigh he continued, "Only a few in rock know. It's classified." Of course if it wasn't classified, Yamato was sure that Deidara would have long found out, and things very well may be different.

Deidara blinked a few times in bewilderment, his mind a buzz, unsure on how to take the leaf nin's word. Because really…? He had family and it had been deemed classified? Not unheard of but to _him_? Perhaps it was due to his hand mouths...?

Still…

He had never cared to find out who his family was. Why should he? They had obviously died or didn't want him. Knowing wouldn't change anything, despite the fact that he had at one point been curious if his deformities had been genetic or if he was simply the only one with the strange anomalies. In the end he hadn't cared enough to dig up the truth. Who cared if it was genetic? He had them, he was stuck with them, knowing wouldn't get rid of them, end of story. And yet this leaf nin was saying he knew who his family was… that the old gnome had known… still knew.

… assuming that the leaf nin wasn't lying. But why make up something like this? Besides the leaf nin did say that there was an actual original copy… which meant he could verify…

"Oh?" Deidara strained out, inwardly hoping that his voice stayed even. "And who is my so called_ family_ hmm?" His free hand flexed, his throat irritatingly tight.

Yamato straightened, his gaze locked to the blonds' face intensely, as he said firmly, assuredly, "Your father was the yellow flash, better known now as the fourth Hokage."

Deidara froze, his eyes wide in shock and disbelief.

The fourth…

That couldn't be…

It's not possible… it _can't_ be possible. He wasn't even from the leaf!

His swirling thoughts were interrupted as the brown haired male continued, "Which also makes Naruto… the jinchuuriki, your brother. You met him before." He didn't know if the artist knew that the nine-tails jinchuuriki's name was Naruto but by mentioning that he was one of the tailed beasts should alight his memory, since they had met.

Deidara blinked slowly, slightly dazed as his brain registered the individual mentioned, and much to his vexation stuttered slightly, "Th-the loud, determined spiky blond kid…" The one who had been furious to what befell the one tails. The one who had been with the copy nin. The one with blond hair and blue eyes…

Yamato nodded, "And you had him detained… you could have, I'm sure grabbed him. _Your _brother… _your _family." Despite that the blond had been armless, he as were several others was sure that a member of the Akatsuki could have grabbed him. Perhaps all he would have had to do was get a hold of Kakashi and simply wait for his partner or another member.

Deidara swallowed.

Family… brother… that blond jinchuuriki? _His_ family?

"As I said if you don't believe me, the Tsuchikage has proof."

Deidara worked his mouth for a moment, his free hand fisting tightly, "Why are you telling me that?" He bit out, eyes fixed with a glare at the pale faced male.

"You didn't join willingly."

Deidara's brow furrowed, puzzlement washing over his features. How the hell does he_ know_ that? "So what?! You hope that I will turn against the Akatsuki? Is that it? To try to stop them? For the kid?"

Yamato shrugged, his features passive, "He is your brother." He took a step forward, towards the stationary blond, "Haven't you ever just once wanted to know your family? To-" Yamato's words died down abruptly, dread shooting through him as he unintentionally took a step backwards at the sudden arrival.

Deidara's mouth fell open in stunned shock and surprise, he had been so enthralled in the leaf nin's words that he hadn't even _felt_ or noticed Tobi's presence.

Tightness encompassed Yamato's throat as he eyed the swirled orange mask nin, who stood in front of the blond almost blocking him from his view. He remembered this man, he was dangerous. He tried to gaze into the black hole of the mask, _trying_, straining to see the glow of the sharingan, which he had seen back in the forest when a group of them had been trailing Sasuke. A part of him didn't believe that this man was really, _truly_ an Uchiha, how could he be? And yet he hadn't been the only one to see the blatant red that signified the sharingan.

He tore his gaze away from the eye hole, not daring to lock gazes with the sharingan, not willing to fall prey to a genjutsu so easily when he could avoid it.

But the question remained, who was he? All signs pointed to an Uchiha, the black spiky hair and the sharingan he'd seen once before, no matter the small part of him whispered that it clearly couldn't have been the sharingan because all of them were dead, save for Itachi and Sasuke. Well at the time it had been save for two, but Itachi was now dead.

So how had this Uchiha survived? Had he been a survivor of the Uchiha massacre? Or had he become a traitor at some point and it had been held confidential? But then wouldn't the council know, and the third? Perhaps… it wasn't like the council didn't hide things, so they _could_ know.

But still… that didn't tell him who this was.

What he did know was that this man was dangerous, his unique ability made it difficult to fight him, not to mention his ability to teleport. And he was sure that that was just the tip of the ice berg, what also made this man seriously dangerous was his connection to the Akatsuki. That alone made it worse.

Now instead of just one he had two in front of him, the masked nin had lousy timing, he had felt he'd been getting _somewhere_ with the blond. His fists clenched tightly, his body rigid, ready to spring into action, but hoping he could squeeze out some more words to the blond.

Tobi glared murderously at the brown haired male from behind his orange mask.

_How dare he!_

How dare this leaf nin reveal such information!

The Akatsuki had worked hard to make sure Deidara never discovered his connection to the nine tails jinchuuriki or that of the leaf. It wasn't like it was common knowledge, but Pein always dug deep into those he wanted in the Akatsuki. It would be foolish not to. Deidara's abilities were interesting, unique and held such power. Having the blond in the organization was a huge benefit. They didn't need something, like a potential family to cause fissures, it certainly didn't help that Deidara hadn't been willing to be a part of the illustrious organization.

For Deidara to discover the fact that he had a living relative, might have triggered the blond to leave. Sure Deidara was a criminal but that didn't mean it would stop him from wanting to see who his family was. And if anything happened between them… it also didn't help that his brother was a jinchuuriki, someone that the Akatsuki would capture and kill. If Deidara held any affection or like towards the kid, would he side with his family? Or with the Akatsuki?

In the end it had been deemed best that Deidara _never _discover that little tidbit. Everyone in the Akatsuki was aware of this, and had vowed to silence, most of them because they were fond of the kid and liked him. Of course Pein had made it clear that if anyone let something slip he'd skin them, no matter how useful they were to the organization, everyone was dispensable. No matter the fact that the Akatsuki was like a family, there was a line and if it was crossed…

Tobi shook his head lightly, unnoticeably as he derailed the thought. All of that effort _wasted!_ All because of a loud mouthed leaf nin!

Tobi's aura darkened, he would die!

He couldn't even fathom how Deidara was taking it, if he even _believed_ but knew that now that the thought was in the blond's head it wasn't going to go away. And gathering from what he had heard, such traitorous words… would Deidara _really_ consider betraying the Akatsuki, betray _him_ for some brat he didn't know just because they were related?

He would not allow it!

Deidara worked his mouth for a few seconds as he stared at the back of Tobi's broad shoulders, how much did Tobi hear? The thought quickly dispersed as a more important question battled for attention, did Tobi know? Deidara shook his head; it was absurd to think that Tobi or even Pein would know he was related to the fourth. How could they? And if they did, surely he would have found out by now… Deidara scoffed inwardly; of course it all could just be a lie…

"Tobi…?" Deidara uttered quietly.

The masked nin ignored the artist, taking a threatening step towards the leaf nin, who jolted, his hands shooting up in preparation for a jutsu.

Deidara jolted slightly, a scowl forming, "h-"

Pausing in his step forward, but not sparing the sculptor a look Tobi spoke in his deeper tone with some of his anger telling in his voice, cutting the artist off, "You were _chatting_ with him." He could almost picture the surprised and raised eyebrow of the blond as he added, "I'll handle him."

Deidara's scowl deepened as he glared at Tobi, very tempted to just shoot a bomb at the leaf nin, just to piss Tobi off. But, it wasn't like the dumbass wasn't telling the truth. He _had_ been standing here, listening to the leaf nin when he _should_ have been killing him. He'd had his chance, but if he were honest, the leaf nin's words had been too compelling to disregard.

Deidara tch'ed, crossing his arms and offered no more protest.

Yamato swallowed thickly; sweat trailing from his brow as he frantically tried to think of a way to get out of this alive. Alone, he doubted, _knew_ that he didn't stand a chance against the masked nin, after all there had been a group of them before and they hadn't even managed to land a hit on the guy. And the raven had simply been toying with them, so he alone was not going to do better.

But…

His dark eyes shifted slightly to settle on the figure of the blond with his arms crossed across his chest, his bright blue gaze riveted to the side, giving the impression that he wasn't paying attention to the two of them. No, Yamato knew he would get no help from the blond, not that he expected or believed that his little chat had changed the blond's mind on much of anything, not enough to help _him_ but if the blond was curious he could intervene to ask more. But judging from his posture it looked like the artist was done with the former conversation.

Well at least the blond now _knew_. Unbidden he thought back to when he and a select few had learned of the information from Jiraiya.

~ Flashback

The room was as silent as a graveyard; the heavy news that had just been delivered had shocked everyone in the decent sized room to the point of only being capable of staring with unbelieving eyes.

Yamato tried to wrap his mind around such a possibility but kept settling on _how_ it was even possible.

"Th-that can't be!"

The loud shaking, disbelieving shout broke Yamato of his inward thoughts and he snapped his head towards the one who had shouted. Naruto stood with his fists clenched at his sides, so hard that he had pierced the skin, small thin lines of blood congregated at his knuckles before dripping off onto the carpeted floor. His face held the disbelieving shock his voice had yet it also held a small glimmer of growing hope.

Yamato figured that the hope was simply for the sole fact that Naruto _had_ a living relative. After all Naruto had grown up as an orphan, never knowing of his parents' identity. As a kid in his position, plenty of assumptions had no doubt been made as to w_hy_ he lacked parents. Perhaps they hadn't wanted him? Perhaps they had and yet had been forced to give him up because of him being a monster? Yamato was sure more questions had followed as Naruto grew so to find out that he had a brother… it meant that he had a connection with someone that no one else would have.

A heavy laced sigh from the front of the room had Yamato turning to settle his gaze on Tsunade who had her arms crossed and her eyes closed. Jiraiya stood with a hand on one hip and his eyes boring into Naruto's whiskered face besides the blond female Hokage.

"It's true." Jiraiya answered. "I stumbled across the information and then found the document to be sure." He briefly glanced down at the sole paper upon the usually heavily covered desk. It wasn't the real document, he'd hastily made a copy to have legitimate proof, and he silently sent a word of thanks to his toads for enabling the copy to get done without massive trouble. After all breaking into the Tsuchikage's office and copying a classified document was sure to cause friction between the two villages, friction that they didn't _need_. And yet fissures were already there due to the fact that Onoki had known of such information and had held possession of the child in question.

Yamato wanted to know _how_ exactly Jiraiya had stumbled across the information but he did know that Jiraiya had vast amounts of hidden contacts. Perhaps someone in rock who knew of the classified information was an informant? Or had recently found out and sent word?

"And how did you discover this? Naruto growled out.

Yamato silently congratulated the kid for voicing his thoughts.

Jiraiya sighed, running his previous dangling hand over his face before giving a side glance to the still and quiet female. When he received no negative gesture or word Jiraiya complied, "I have a rock nin, who I met on one of my travels, back before the war between rock and the leaf; who is a fan of my Icha Icha franchise."

Yamato couldn't help the face he made or the sweat drop that inched its way down the side of his face at this piece of news. He shouldn't be at all surprised.

"While I haven't always kept in touch since the war and all, I received a letter from him after my new book hit the market and basically that he enjoyed it and was curious as to whether there would be another one soon. So we got back into taking," Jiraiya explained, waving a hand. "Anyway, some months ago I received a coded message from him, he apparently over heard two council members having a heated conversation about the kid and let the information slip. My contact thought it was something I would want to know and told me."

"He told you? Just like that?" Naruto asked somewhat shakily.

"Well no," Jiraiya stated after a silent probe of Naruto's features, "he owed me a favor."

"Naruto," Tsunade finally spoke up, interrupting the conversation. "The _reason_ we are telling you is because 'he' is a part of the Akatsuki. We know that 'he' isn't aware of this… or at least when he was living in rock he wasn't. But we _may_ be able to use this…"

Yamato raised an eyebrow, Naruto mimicking the action both simultaneously wondering how they could possibly use this information to get anything on the Akatsuki.

"According to Jiraiya 'he' didn't join of his own free will, which means if he were to discover that he had a brother and that the rock has known all these years, he's bound to…"

"Bound to what?" Naruto snapped unwisely interrupting the fifth Hokage. "Why would _he_ care? He's still a criminal!"

Tsunade and Jiraiya fell silent for a moment, one closing their eyes as the other stared blankly at the blond almost yellow hair.

"Weren't you curious about your family when you were young? He never knew either; I think it's human nature to want to know were one is from." Jiraiya stated.

Naruto's eyes dropped, the old toad sage's words washing over him and he couldn't help but realize the truth of these words.

"So," Yamato broke the heavy silence that had befallen the room, "do you want us to _talk_ to 'him' should we ever run into him?"

Tsunade settled her gaze on the wood user, "Yes, if he doesn't know, someone informing him will arise his curiosity. The thought w_ill_ be there and be persistent."

"It's a slim, very slim possibility that it'll turn out to help but if the kid finds out he may go looking for answers, he _may_ choose to help because he didn't join the Akatsuki willingly. It _is_ true that he is also a criminal but…" Jiraiya trailed off with a small shake of his head, causing his white long hair to shift a little. He had of course told Tsunade of the kid's treatment growing up, it eerily echoed Naruto's except his was worse in the end and had resulted in defection. While he understood the kid's reason for leaving it didn't change the fact that he was now a criminal. They… he _could_ redeem the action but not everything after that.

They had not kept this from Naruto; Tsunade felt that knowing that the kid had a similar growing up would help convince Naruto of helping the cause. He knew Naruto was thrilled at least on some level that he _had_ a brother but was also at a standstill since the other was a criminal, and had been the cause of Gaara dying.

Though he silently worried that Naruto knowing of having a brother that was alive could be trouble. Naruto could get it in his head that he _needed_ to be saved like Sasuke. The last thing they needed was for Naruto to choose his brother over the leaf. But then… perhaps if the kid helped them in bringing down the Akatsuki he could be redeemed and given a second chance. If Sasuke could be given one then anyone should be given one, which then meant that Naruto would have something else besides Sasuke to fight and focus on.

Naruto squinted at the toad sage, his scowl tightening, "How _exactly_ do you know that he didn't join willingly?" Where would he have learned of such a thing?

Jiraiya jolted a tad, looking somewhat sheepish a moment later, "Ah, well…" sighing Jiraiya decided to be straight, "I don't _know _for sure. But,"

Jiraiya paused at the twin glowers from Yamato and Naruto and raised his hands placating, "It's not hard to determine or an unreasonable conception, he left due to the mistreatment and gathering from his personality growing up in rock and from various other reports of his activity now, he isn't too fond of being ordered around. He prefers to do things his way, not to be caged."

Yamato inwardly sighed, as he crossed his arms across his chest, well the assumption that he didn't join because he wanted to _could_ be made from that.

Tsunade rolled her eyes before giving a side glare to her old friend, "_That_," she bit out catching the occupants' full attention, "and apparently a small rumor in rock is that 'he' didn't want to join."

Jiraiya gave a quick "Ah!" while rubbing the back of his head, "Right that to!"

Both Naruto and Yamato sweat dropped, simultaneously thinking _why didn't he just say that?_

Tsunade closed her eyes with a light sigh, "I don't think this is necessary but I'm going to say it anyways." She opened her eyes to stare flatly and determinedly at the pair before her, "This does _not_ leave this room, understood?" It certainly didn't help that the council was against her informing Naruto about having a living brother. Especially since it could cause Naruto to press about his parentage and while she knew someday he would learn the truth, it would be best for that not to happen anytime soon.

Both nodded uttering "Yes," one after the other.

Naruto opened his mouth but whatever he was going to voice was prevented as the Hokage continued, "Kakashi will be informed, sine he _is_ in charge of team seven."

Naruto's mouth shut with a nod. After a still almost tense silence Naruto asked with a hint of longing curiosity, "What about-"

"Naruto," Tsunade snapped sharply, cutting the words from being voiced, already knowing what Naruto was about to ask. She lightly shook her head, a few strands of light blond hair falling into her face, which she ignored.

Naruto stared wide eyed, somewhat startled at the abrupt interruption and sharp hidden demand. With a tight throat he slowly shut his mouth, his fits clenching at his side as disappointment and anger swelled. It swelled until it burst, all the pent up anger and disappointment, and loneliness over the years, he wouldn't take it anymore, "Then how do you know we're related!?"

Jiraiya sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his face, feeling as if he had just aged a few more years, "Blond hair, blue eyes," he rolled off with a gesture of his hand. "You both look alike, even if you weren't related; you both _could_ pass as brothers." Except, while Naruto looked like a mini Minato, he… Deidara – Jiraiya recalled the name, had Kushina's long hair.

Naruto gnawed his teeth together, that didn't answer his question! But one glance at the old hag, and seeing the stern look kept him from saying anything else on the matter. As he slowly calmed, Jiraiya's words actually processed, and his mind went back to his run-in with the slightly older blond, they _did_ look alike!

They, Tsunade and Jiraiya wouldn't lie about something like this… he _really_ had a… brother! He shook his head, ignoring the other occupants in the room, far too interested in his thoughts.

Yamato shifted attention to the now much calmer blond, and couldn't help but wonder how things would play out.

~ End flashback

Yamato gave a quick, small shake of his head to get back on track, his eyes giving the masked nin a once over before snapping his hands together performing his wood style jutsu, hoping to catch the other off guard, even a little. Several beams of wood shot towards the stationary raven, as they did so, Yamato jerked backwards, ready to twirl around but froze as his attack simply passed through the nin's body. Gritting his teeth in irritation, he prepared for another attack, but before he could bring his hands together the raven moved.

The bright orange mask had been shifted up, just enough to uncover his mouth and then far too fast for Yamato to see a jet of flames were shooting straight at him.

_Fire!_

Yamato thought in unease, sure the raven was an Uchiha, so it was a given fact that he could perform fire techniques but it simply hadn't registered that he would, since his other abilities, their uniqueness… He squashed his thoughts as he veered to the side, avoiding the flames, bringing his hands up and aimed for the last spot he'd seen the raven. Then jerked back and aimed for the few paces in front of him.

Clang!

Yamato's eyes widened in surprise even as a smirk slid onto his features.

Tobi glared darkly at the smug looking leaf nin just a few paces in front of him, as he leaned his head back, away from the sole beam of wood that had slammed into his spiraled mask with a good amount of force due to how close he was to the other. He was sure that his mask had suffered some minor damage but that was the least of his concern. He hadn't expected the nin to anticipate where he would move, not that it was that hard to come to that conclusion. Popping up in front of one's enemy was a good way to startle them and catch them off guard, giving one the chance to make the kill.

Deidara watched the scene with visible surprise, he'd turned his attention to the fight the second he'd heard the 'clang', and he couldn't believe that someone had _actually_ managed to hit Tobi. Was the dumbass unwell or something? Or had the leaf nin simply gotten lucky? Deidara shook his head to get rid of his thoughts, it didn't overly matter, after all it was just _one_ hit.

Tobi side stepped the protruding piece of wood causing the leaf nin to visibly jolt and propel backwards aiming to make distance between them.

Yamato's heart pounded loudly in his ears, sweat trickled down his brow, getting irritatingly into his eyes, as he frantically tried to come up with a plausible solution to getting out of here in one piece. But the only thing he could do would be to stall the masked nin, but he couldn't do that for a long enough time, not enough that it would enable him to make a break for it. And he still had to account for the stationary blond, who would most likely pursue him, should he give the raven the slip.

He couldn't outrun them… and no back up would be arriving to help him.

Shit!

Yamato skidded to a halt, lightly panting, more from nerves and adrenaline then exertion and quickly scanned the enclosed area, before bringing his arms up, intending to perform another jutsu. At the last moment he decided on a defense jutsu, it stood to good reason that the masked nin would attack from a distance after the blow to his covered face, and since he could perform fire techniques and wood was weak against fire, Yamato logically concluded that the next attack would be a fire one. Closing his black eyes momentarily, his hands formed the seals to make a wooden, solid yet sturdy dome, reinforced to hopefully withstand the fiery attack.

As expected a powerful, fierce fireball struck the small wooden enclosure. Yamato stared fixatedly before him, part of him willing for the wood to endure even as a thin layer of red slowly blotched through, working on burning through the layer of wood, the smell of burning wood wafting over him. As he waited for the fire to subside, Yamato tried to plan his next move but before he could come up with anything, a loud splintering sound tore through the little area and with wide eyes he swung to the side meeting a fisted black glove to his cheek.

The force of the punch sent him hurtling through one side of his wood dome and crashing into the ground. Coughing, Yamato struggled to rise to his feet while he tried to lay his gaze on the raven. Slowly but surely Yamato succeeded in standing, but before he could counter the bright spiraled orange mask was in his face and a gloved hand shot out wrapping around his neck with excruciating force that it almost crushed his windpipe. Panic struck with such force, like that of being hit in the head with a hammer, and nearly caused him to faint. But that probably would have been preferable as a distant part of him knew that he was going to die, for there was no way he was going to get free, not on his own and the masked Uchiha was not about to let him live.

H-he was not ready to die!

Not like this, not such a pointless death!

His arms snapped up, tugging uselessly at the arm, as he choked. With a squinted eye Yamato's gaze unintentionally connected with the eye hole of the mask, meeting red. In an instant he was drawn into an elaborate genjutsu, and in a matter of moments his arms dropped, his struggling ceased and his breathing stopped.

Tobi released his hold on the limp body, letting him collapse to the dirt, barren ground with a thud. Tobi hummed lowly in satisfaction even though killing him didn't change the damage done.

Deidara uncrossed his arms, a scowl etched onto his face as he took a slow step towards the raven, who had his back to him.

"Is is true?" Deidara asked quietly, his tone almost biting. It stood to good reason that Tobi may know, seeing as he _was_ the true leader of the Akatsuki.

Tobi kept his half lidded gaze on the fallen leaf nin, his hands fisted, "Does it matter?"

A sharp glare settled on Deidara's face as he stood still a few paces behind the masked nin, nearly yelling his next words but managing to refrain, "It does un!"

Tobi angled his head as he glanced back at the pissed blond, "_Why_ does it matter?"

Deidara paused for an instant, _why did it matter?_

Deidara's brow furrowed, because…

Because if he was truly related to the fourth Hokage, he wanted… _needed_ to know!

He had grown up in Iwa, yet if it was true, why hadn't he been in the leaf? Why was it deemed classified? Well that wasn't so hard to figure out, the old gnome wouldn't tell him his origins when he was trying to insinuate he was born and a part of Iwa, to discover otherwise would have possibly lead to rebellion, to become disloyal. Not that in the end that didn't happen.

Deidara fixed his glare back onto the orange mask, as he straightened, "Because I _want _to know." And if Tobi wouldn't tell him, then he would just have to find out on his own.

Seeing the determined, adamant look on the artist's face, Tobi deemed it not worth trying to skim out of this. Nor lie. Deidara could try another way, and he'd rather limit that, get things settled and done with as soon as possible. Sighing Tobi nodded, affirming in his dark, smooth tone, "Yes, it's true."

Shock rippled through him at the words, his mouth falling open a tad. _I-It was true?_

What the leaf nin had said… it was… _true._

Holy shit!

It…

Wait.

Deidara blinked a few times, refocusing on the still raven. If it was true…

"How do _you_ know?" Sure Tobi was the leader of a criminal organization, had connections but how had Tobi become privy to such information? It, according to the leaf nin, was classified information. Only a few would know. So how… why…?

Tobi quickly debated his options, to lie or to tell the truth. Lying no doubt would come back to bite him, and he didn't want to do _anything_ to hamper their relationship, to lose what he had. He'd worked so hard, so many years to get this far with the blond, he would be damned if he let a lie ruin it.

Exhaling, Tobi closed his eye, "Pein always checks into his chosen members, that includes their past, so that he knows what to expect. Members are meant to be long term, so by delving into one's past, he can account or determine if something is likely to cause problems." Tobi paused as he opened his eye, staring blankly at the fair face of the blond, "Organizations already have their fair share of problems, if they can be limited, measures will be taken to do so."

Deidara blinked as he processed the words, so Pein knew… hadfor years. And Tobi was the real leader, which meant he'd also known for _years_…

Anger surged, "Then why the hell didn't he tell me hmm!" _Why didn't you…?_

"Why do you think?" Tobi questioned aloofly.

Deidara twitched, his fingers flexing, itching for some clay, whether he wanted to throw it at the bastard or simply knead it, he couldn't decide.

Heaving heavily, Tobi answered the furious blond, "It was not important." He swiftly held up a hand to still the disagreeing words, "Why would it be? You were going to be a member, knowing who you were related to was not important, it wasn't like you would be able to communicate or interact with them. Farthermore the organization hunted jinchuuriki, knowing that one was your brother, who would ultimately have to die was not important."

"Not important!?" Deidara snapped heatedly. _How dare he!_

Tobi fixed a mild glare at the pissed off blond, quickly continuing before the artist could keep shouting, "It would have only served to cause problems. How could you hunt, capture Jinchuuriki if you held attachment to one?"

Tobi paused, allowing the words to seep, to penetrate the fog of anger before adding, "Pein was concerned that by just knowing that you were related to one may cause fissures. And it was deemed not important, because you would never be able to interact or have anything with him."

Deidara exhaled, trying to steam his anger as it would not serve to get him anywhere. What Tobi said made sense, but still…

What was so wrong with telling him who his parents were? Granted he'd given up on ever finding out but if Pein had known and Tobi why couldn't they have just _told_ him? The fourth was dead, so it wasn't like he could seek him out, demand to know why he was in Iwa instead of in the leaf.

Though he could have tried to find out from a high ranked leaf nin…

The anger drained out of him, as he realized that it _was_ smarter to not tell him, if they had it would have only opened a can of worms… and he hadn't wanted to join, it would have only encouraged him to leave.

It wasn't like he was stupid, he would never be able to have anything with any related family, for the sole fact that he was a missing nin, but that connection was _still there_. It was simply amazing to have someone of the same blood, alive, to know that you _had_ a connection with someone, even if it was only the simple knowledge.

That made sense, but why couldn't they have told him when he was older? If he had been planning on leaving the Akatsuki he would have done it by now, (he blamed Tobi for getting under his skin), plus it wasn't like he had anywhere else to go. So what was wrong with telling him now? (Before the leaf nin had told him.)

Still it _hurt_ that Tobi had kept something like this from him for so long, sure before they got together he could understand not being told but after…

"And what was wrong with telling me later?" Deidara asked his tone calmer.

Tobi frowned, not missing the ache in the blond's voice, "It was best not to." Especially since the nine-tail jinchuuriki was still _alive_. And that boy was fiercely determined, all he had to do was look at the situation with him and Sasuke to know what would happen _should_ Dei express any kind of interest. This kid would no doubt try to; on the orders of the leaf get Deidara to help. After all their goal was to stop the Akatsuki, and Dei being a member would be a good point to start.

Tobi didn't know if Naruto was aware of the relationship but if he was…

He shook his head and turned his attention back to the artist, who was back to glaring at him. Sighing heavily, Tobi appeased, "You know _now_."

Deidara's glare darkened.

Tobi shifted his attention away from the artist; back to the body on the ground beside his feet. It would not be overly wise to leave evidence. He shifted his mask up, just enough to uncover his mouth and took several steps back before setting the body on fire.

"Why were you chatting with him anyways?" Despite his cool tone, it held a hint of a demand in it.

Deidara's forehead creased, irritated at the question before scoffing, "He demanded I tell him where Pein went." Seeing the cocked head, signaling him to give more depth, he added, "He said Pein destroyed the leaf, but when I wouldn't let him pass he said-" Deidara broke off at the heavy sigh from the raven.

Tobi didn't need to know what exactly was said, it, whatever it was clearly was enough to grasp the blond's attention enough that he stalled in killing him.

Mask back in place Tobi stated, "Come on. We have to go." He needed to speak with Pein.

Deidara's mouth dropped a little, intent on voicing his dislike of the topic change only to have Tobi sidle besides him, laying a gloved hand on his shoulder. Deidara _almost_ jerked away.

Realization dawned, Tobi meant go as in somewhere far, as in he was planning to _teleport _them. Before Deidara could voice anything, they vanished.

~ End

Note – the flashback was added last, I wrote everything else then decided to do a flashback and inserted it. I wanted some insight from Naruto which is mostly why I did the flashback.

For some reason I had a difficult time writing the fighting scene with Yamato and Tobi… which is odd seeing as I knew how I wanted it to go, so sorry if it comes off blotchy. Sometimes I'd only manage a few sentences and then come back at a later time and write more…

I'm actually having second thoughts about having them related… I kind of lost the interest in the idea (At least incorporating it in this story) but if I take it out it'll mess up what I have written… (And I would have to go back and change things,) though I'm not going to focus too much on it or go to deep into it. It'll be covered in at least two more chaps and be done with save for a small part at a later date and then it will finally be put to rest.

Ah well I hope this didn't ruin it for anyone. I did ask a question some chaps back and only got a little feedback so…. Well the next lemon is in chap 17!

Posted: 01/3/2013


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

Since I couldn't do this personally, to **SeCreT YaOi AdMIreR** – Thanks for the favs, and for taking the time to leave a review! And I agree, I wish that Dei was too.

And, to anonymous reviewer **liemie **– thanks for leaving a review! All reviews are seriously appreciated. (Discounting flames)

I can't believe it's been a whole **year** since I posted this story! Well a year and a month or so. So sorry for the late update, this is the latest I've ever been.

**Note** – Contains lemon!

Beta'ed by **JJKMagic – **thanks!

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 17 - Demands

Deidara scowled darkly as he stalked down the lightly lit corridor of one of the Akatsuki's hidden bases alone. He had given the dumbass the slip upon arriving, thoroughly irritated with him. No matter how much the raven's reason for not telling him made sense, it left him angry and hurt.

When Tobi had said they needed to go, he had _thought_ they were going to Iron, but instead turned up at the hideout.

Why exactly were they delaying so much to get to Iron? He had thought they needed to get there as soon as possible. The longer they took, the stronger the chance Kabuto would move on. Whatever, he didn't overly care; eventually he was sure they would make it over that way. Right now, however, he was far more interested in having a talk with Pein.

After a few turns Deidara came to a closed wooden door, after a few brief moments of hesitation the artist slowly raised a fisted mouthed hand and knocked.

A strong, firm and commanding tone drifted through the relatively thick door, giving him admittance. He entered with a false air of calm, his anger hidden under a thin layer, threatening to burst any second. He tried to keep himself in check as Pein was still the acting leader (who also didn't know that he was aware that Tobi was the real one) and would be displeased at being accused and yelled at.

Not that Pein was innocent… but ticking Pein off was never a good idea. However, despite knowing that, Deidara frankly didn't give a damn.

Pein looked up, mild surprise flittering through him at the artist's entrance; he was _supposed_ to be on a mission with Tobi.

Unbeknownst to the two Tobi watched from the shadowed left corner, having suspected that Deidara would confront Pein on the issue. As much as that wasn't a good idea, it pushed him out of the spotlight. For if Pein discovered Deidara finding out yet didn't hear a peep from the young artist about it, his suspicion would alight. Pein would tell Deidara close to what he said, and unless Deidara let something slip, Pein would never know that the blond had first heard it from him. Nor discover that Deidara knew that Pein was only acting leader.

Pein sat back, his curiosity alighted, he could see anger simmering under the surface of the light façade.

"Yes?" Pein droned out, deciding to start, feeling that some of the anger that the blond was feeling was directed at him which was unusual, as mostly it was at Itachi or another member…

Before he could finish his train of thought the artist shifted and gritted out in a snappish tone, "You know who I'm related to."

Pein jolted, freezing at the words. He would have leaned more towards the artist fishing, but his words were merely a statement, fact.

Deidara _knew._

How? Who could have told him? No one in the Akatsuki would have dared to, someone from Iwa perhaps?

Pein closed his eyes with a heavy sigh, deciding not to even try to weasel around the statement.

"How did you find out?" His tone was as usual emotionless but demanding.

Deidara crossed his arms and openly glared at the orange haired male, "That's not important hmm."

One of Pein's eyebrow's rose at the tone and expression; in light of the circumstance he supposed he couldn't blame the blond. So he brushed off the other's attitude for the moment.

"Yes, I know and have for years," Pein informed.

He watched the scowl increase and his face darken at his words, a part of him was certain that the artist was going to throw a bomb at him any second. Something he knew the artist would never do, yet considering the topic of conversation he was willing to disregard his certainty on the matter.

Deidara held in a growl as he uncrossed his arms, slamming them onto the sturdy, paper covered desk and shouted in rage, "Then why didn't you ever tell me!?"

Oh yes, Tobi had already told him but he wanted to hear Pein's reason.

Pein simply intertwined his fingers, regarding the blond with an unreadable look, that only infuriated the artist more.

Sure Pein had never been big on showing emotions but considering Pein had _lied _to him for years and was now being called on it, Deidara was expecting _something._

"It didn't seem appropriate. Your only living relative would die, it was better for you to remain unaware," Pein stated blandly, seeing the blond's mouth part, he quickly continued, "And if I _had_ told you, there was a possibility that it would prevent you from capturing him. You ran into him, sometime back right?" Pein didn't wait for the nod of confirmation as he continued, "If you had known then, would you have fought as effectively? Would you have perhaps entertained the notion of whether the kid knew?"

Deidara froze, if he had known then…

Would he…?

His forehead creased, his eyebrows knitting.

He would like to think it wouldn't have interfered but he just he didn't _know._

Seeing the 'o' look on the feminine face, Pein was certain he'd breached the other's brain and hit understanding. Good. Hopefully this wasn't going to be pressed farther.

Still, he'd best keep an eye out, the last thing they needed was for the blond to switch sides or something. Not that it was insanely likely, they were related, yes, but there was nothing _there_. No connection besides blood, he found it hard to believe that that alone was enough to cause Deidara to deem the kid worthy.

Deidara slowly slid his hands off the sturdy, paper covered desk and straightened. Everything Pein and Tobi said made sense and he couldn't completely fault them for their decision. But a part of him could not forgive them for it. They had lied to him for_ years_, and never planned to reveal such information at all. So if that leaf nin hadn't told him, chances are he never would have known.

Deidara scoffed quietly, his gaze raising briefly to glare at the rinnegan eyes before spinning on his heel and leaving the room, slamming the door as he did so.

Pein sighed heavily, his eyes falling shut as he did so. He had been planning on asking Deidara _why_ he was even here but he was sure that –

Tobi stepped into the light, the confrontation had gone better with Pein than it did with him. He focused fully onto the orange haired male, wondering how he'd made it back so quickly. Sure this base was seriously close to the Leaf, and Pein had probably been ahead of them but…

Tobi shook the thought off, and made his presence known. Not even bothering with his Tobi façade.

"That went rather well."

Pein's thought stalled, and he thankfully only inwardly jumped as the dark, velvety voice broke the silence of the room. His head snapped up, settling on Tobi's form to the left, wondering how long he had been in here. He hadn't _even_ _noticed, _grantedhe was severely low on chakraand had just cleaned up and changed; only managing to take a seat and pick up his pen when Deidara had strode in. So it wasn't a complete shock that he had failed to acknowledge Tobi in the room. But it left an unsettling feeling in him, how often did Madara do this?

Between Konan and him it was difficult to be caught unaware but for someone like Madara, he knew it wasn't too hard to do, not if he was adamantly determined. Pein derailed his musing and turned to the statement, nodding and asked, "How did he find out?" He was certain Madara hadn't told Deidara and the two of them should have been out and about, so the blond couldn't have heard from one of the other members.

Tobi crossed his arms with a sigh, "A chatty leaf nin."

Pein's eyebrow rose, "The leaf knows?"

Tobi nodded, "Looks like it."

Tobi strode closer to the desk, "Or they did." He doubted all of the leaf knew, he was sure only a minority did, and if the leaf was truly gone, the chances were that the knowledge died with it. _Hopefully._

Pein simply blinked a light enquiring look visible on his features.

"Deidara mentioned that the leaf nin said you destroyed the village."

Pein blinked again, staring blandly at the spiraled mask, trying to glean _something_ but as always couldn't. "I did," He uttered emotionlessly.

There were a few moments of tense silence before it was broken, "Someone must have _really_ ticked you off, if you went to the trouble." Tobi hummed out, unknowingly echoing Deidara's words from earlier.

Pein tilted his head a bit, "What? Was that not a good idea?" He didn't think, didn't _believe_ Madara would have any problems with his actions. Sure Madara hadn't _ordered_ him to destroy the leaf but it wasn't like it worked against them. And he knew that the raven held no fondness for the leaf village.

Tobi deviated from the pierced face, to gaze at the lone flickering candle in the right hand corner of the messy desk. They had never gotten around to installing actual lights in this base. But this one was a rarely used one anyways…

"No. It's fine." When Pein had set out with intentions to capture the jinchuuriki, he knew that the leaf would sustain a good amount of damage. So to find it entirely destroyed, well it was a nice surprise. "But," Tobi paused deliberately as he returned his gaze to the sitting male, "I see that you failed in capturing the kid." It was the most logical conclusion, seeing as Pein didn't immediately inform him.

Pein's eyes closed, feeling the anger from the masked nin.

"What happened?"

"The kid transformed, but then returned to normal," Pein stated softly.

Tobi's arms tightened across his chest, giving a light growl, "and?"

"Destroying the leaf and fighting the mini nine-tails severely depleted me. When backup arrived, I retreated."

Tobi closed his eye in anger, demanding sharply, "How is it that _you_ failed with seven people!" They had the element of surprise. He couldn't believe Pein had botched this!

Pein opened his mouth but then thought better of it and closed it. The last thing he needed was to piss the other off farther.

Tobi dropped his arms, quickly reining his rage as he let loose a drawn out sigh. He knew from the start that there was a small percent chance of Pein failing, _that_ kid was just plain irritatingly lucky.

"His growth rate is startling, he's already achieved Sage mode," Pein murmured.

Tobi's eyebrow shot up in mild surprise, well now, that was interesting.

"Indeed it is." Tobi hummed out thoughtfully as he closed his eye, "yet, he is inexperienced and young, he should not have given you as much trouble as he did."

Pein wisely kept his mouth shut.

Tobi sighed heavily, turning his back to Pein. But before he could head towards the door, the rinnegan wielder asked, "Aren't you supposed to be on a mission?"

"We were in the area, and Deidara was adamant about speaking with you after his discovery." He angled his masked face at the acting leader for a moment before striding towards the door. "We will be leaving shortly."

Without any farther words the masked nin was gone, leaving Pein to exhale heavily.

~88

Deidara lay face down on his bed, eyes closed in frustration. A part of him wished that he had never heard those words from the unnamed leaf nin, then he wouldn't _know_ and it wouldn't be driving him up the wall.

He understood Pein and Tobi's reasoning, but that didn't settle everything. Why had he been in iwa in the first place? Did his parents not want him? Or had he been kidnapped? Why hadn't that old gnome told him? Okay so that last one he understood to an extent…

The leaf nin's words echoed distantly, he had mentioned proof. An original copy in Iwa…

Deidara's eyes opened and he instantly sat up filled with inspiration.

He had to see it!

His adamant determination flickered as the door opened and Tobi came in. Anger flowed through him, threatening to burst as he struggled to keep a glare off his face, Tobi would _never_ let him go. Why would he?

Entering his former village just to see a document was suicide, especially when he already _knew_ who his parents were, well one of them any way. But perhaps it had more on it; maybe it said why he was in Iwa… or _something_… That and he wanted to make _sure_ that it was _true._ Not that he really doubted it, after all why would Pein and Tobi lie about that?

"We need to get going. We've lost too much time." Tobi informed the sitting form, hoping that the blond wasn't still furious and stuck over what he had just learned.

Deidara scowled, crossing his arms defiantly across his chest as he leveled a heated glare at the raven. "Where, un?" They had originally set out with intentions to go to Iron and had yet to make it even remotely close to there.

Tobi sighed lightly, not missing the tone or the defiant posture, "To Iron, where else?"

Deidara scoffed loudly, "Well we s_till_ haven't made it there, what with all the stops. Weren't we going because Kabuto was bound to be there?" Deidara's arms tightened, his glare deepening, "Who's to say he'll still be there hmm? If he even was to begin with?"

Tobi closed his eye, refraining from sighing again. It would seem the blond was more pissed then he had anticipated. Or he'd simply had too much time to stew…

"Are you going to be mad over this for long?" Tobi asked, slight annoyance tingeing his tone. He had hoped that after hearing Pein's view the artist would drop it. Deidara had understood. What more did he want? What more did he need to hear?

Deidara's hands fisted so tightly that they started turning white, "Mad!?"

He had a right to be _mad_, damn it!

Tobi couldn't refrain from sighing heavily this time as he lightly rubbed the back of his neck, "Where did _you_ want to go?"

Deidara blinked, surprised at the question, he hadn't been expecting that in particular, some of the anger drained as he stared at the infuriatingly calm masked nin. Should he? Surly it couldn't hurt to ask…? Right?

Deidara bit his lip in debate. Finally he deviated his gaze to the side, looking at bland, white walls that had begun to peel and hesitantly voiced, "That leaf nin… he said there was proof…"

Tobi jolted, instantly understanding what Deidara wanted to do. No! To do such a thing was ridiculous! Why did he even _need_ to see it! He already knew!

"No." Tobi instantly forbid.

Deidara's glare returned instantly as he shot up in furious rage, "Why not!?"

"You already know! You don't_ need_ to see the document!" Tobi shouted, unable to refrain from doing so. In situations like this… why couldn't Deidara just be… obedient?

Deidara growled lowly, "But _I_ want to see it un!"

Tobi crossed his arms, willing himself to calm down, "It's not worth it."

Deidara worked his mouth several times before closing it and remained silent. Why had he bothered to ask? He knew the bastard wouldn't let him go. Deidara shifted his head to the side, allowing his bang to block his features; he didn't need Tobi's permission! But…

How could he give the other the slip?

Tobi frowned in surprise, was that it? He hadn't expected Deidara to give in so easily… Or was the blond planning something? After all Deidara could go to Pein and try and get him to let him go but Tobi knew that Pein wouldn't, even without him telling Pein that the artist couldn't. Whether Deidara went to Pein or not…

So then was Deidara letting it go? Or would he try something?

If there was one thing he knew for certain about the blond, it was that he was seriously stubborn, so he found it hard to believe that Deidara would simply let this go, which meant he was bound to come up with a way to see that document, even if both he and Pein told him 'no'.

Tobi sighed heavily as he ran a gloved hand through his short, spiky hair.

It didn't make sense why Deidara _had_ to see it, but perhaps it was the simple fact of _seeing_ with his own eyes, seeing the _proof._ It was risky, suicidal and so not worth it in his opinion. But…

Perhaps it would be best if he let Deidara go. After all he didn't want this to screw things up, if he was accommodating and forth coming concerning this, then things _should_ be fine. He knew Deidara was mad about being left in the dark for years and not being told by him but he knew _know_ and should be appeased with that, especially if Tobi allowed Deidara to see the document.

Then the only thing he should have to worry about is Naruto. What would happen if they should meet again? Frankly he didn't want to know. With a light shake of his head and a vague thought of hoping that this didn't end in disaster he strode forward, silently.

Deidara was still in the process of contemplating on _how_ he could give Tobi the slip when strong arms wrapped around him tightly, instantly derailing his scheming.

Tobi buried his unmasked face in the long, soft hair with a small sigh, before reluctantly informing the silent blond, "Fine, I will allow you to go."

Deidara's face went slack as shock rippled through him, was Tobi serious!? Or was he simply toying with him? Deidara quickly debated the odds of Tobi doing something like that and quickly dismissed the possibility. He _may_ but not over something like this.

"Really un?" Deidara voiced skeptically even as elation slowly bubbled up, while staring at the thick, dark shirt.

When he felt the nod of confirmation he added, "Why?" If Tobi was _really_ going to let him, there _had _to be some kind of stipulation.

Tobi wound a gloved hand into the lovely blond locks, gripping the back of the artist's head, "Because it's important to you." Tobi paused briefly at the light scoff, but simply ignored it as he continued, "And I know how stubborn you are. Despite what I say, you would no doubt find some way to see that document."

Deidara blinked, a light sheen of red spreading across his face, it was almost like Tobi had read his mind! Was he really that transparent? Deidara mulled that over for a few moments before shredding the thought; no he'd just been around Tobi too long.

"So…" Deidara tentatively voiced, itching to glance up but refrained since Tobi's face was pressed into his hair. "Are you coming un?" He wasn't tremendously sure on what to feel about that but Tobi_ could_ teleport, getting to and from would be simpler and faster.

Tobi was silent for a few moments, a part of him already regretting this, before answering, "I wish, but I'll use this time to take care of a few things. As for Iron, you may be right; in any case we will get to Kabuto eventually." If they never did make it to Iron for Kabuto, that was fine, he was sure Kabuto would make some kind of move soon… at the very least eventually.

Deidara frowned, "but it would be faster-"

"I know." Tobi interrupted. "And I would feel much better going with you but…" Tobi sighed heavily, this was _not_ part of the plan, and he didn't _have _time to go, no matter how much he wanted to. He would feel better accompanying the blond but he couldn't afford to. Besides Deidara was strong, capable and far better at taijutsu now, that left him more comfortable with the idea. That and he wouldn't be going alone.

"Kisame will accompany you."

Deidara's mouth fell a little, _there_ was the stipulation. Well he didn't have a problem with that, he liked Kisame and he had insane amounts of chakra, he would be a huge asset compared to say Hidan. Deidara nodded intent on voicing thus aloud but never managed as Tobi pulled away from his hair and crashed his mouth onto his. Deidara made an unidentifiable noise, stunned before kissing back.

The kiss was short and as Deidara gathered what air he lost Tobi informed, "I will tell Pein and he will inform the both of you."

Deidara bobbed his head lightly, having expected the other to do so, after all Pein _was_ still in charge; he would find it suspicious if Deidara took off to do such a large scale mission without consent from him.

Tobi pulled back, snaking his arm, the one that had previously been tangled in long hair and gripped firmly onto the artist's chin, pulling up till their eyes met.

"_Try_ not to be reckless…"

Deidara blinked once, his mouth parting slightly before simply nodding. In the past Sasori had often yelled at him about his severe lack of caution once he got going. While he didn't completely agree, he supposed he did do some risky things. But that was part of the fun… But looking into the bright red orb, Deidara knew that not promising to be as careful as possible would no doubt end in having the raven change his mind. And he would be damned to let that happen! Besides he wasn't foolish enough to take this lightly, he _was_ after all going into his former village. He could not afford to be careless.

Tobi released his grip after being certain the blond would _try_ to behave and rewrapped his arms around the lithe form.

The next thing Deidara knew, Tobi's mouth was on his. He, somewhat irritatingly found himself melting, but ultimately he didn't mind.

Tobi backed the teen up, causing Deidara to spring his arms up to grip the taller male, kissing all the while. It wasn't until Tobi pressed against his lower area, bringing forth a small gasp that Deidara pulled back, successfully breaking the kiss.

Tobi not deterred, simply shifted to the lightly tan neck, licking and nipping, causing small shudders to rack the younger male.

Deidara bit his lip, trying to stop the moans threatening to spill out. A dark red splashed across his face, only deepening as he felt his member come to life. He squirmed slightly, as much as this felt good and knowing how ultimately amazing it ended in he was not in the mood. He _really_ wanted to get going! He wanted to see that document!

A moan slipped out as Tobi bit down, hard, managing to draw some blood, lightly licking it up before sucking on the wound.

"Ah- T-tobi!"

Deidara worked his hands to Tobi's chest and shoved, but as always not succeeded in budging the other the slightest bit. Deidara twitched in irritation, why did Tobi _have_ to be so strong?

Tobi slowly pulled up with one last lick to the pale neck, humming out, "Yes, _Senpai?"_

Just as Deidara opened his mouth Tobi grinded their members together, earning a strangled gasp. A smirk formed at the glare that was leveled at him. Before Deidara could speak, Tobi captured the artist's mouth roughly. He was well aware that Deidara wanted to get going, but it wouldn't hurt to wait, especially since it would be a while till they saw each other again.

Deidara, despite _wanting _to head out couldn't help but feel more compelled to stay, it just felt _so_ good. He closed his eyes, working his mouth against Tobi's, not bothering to fight for dominance.

Tobi trailed a gloved hand over the covered chest, lightly stroking as he made his way downwards. He stopped at the edge of the artists light blue pants, before giving them a light tug.

Deidara's eyes snapped open, realization dawning, Tobi wanted to go _all_ the way. His hands fisted in the dark material before squirming again. He… he didn't want to do it again! Not right in this moment. Not when he wanted… _needed_ to see that document.

Ignoring the blond's squirming Tobi proceeded to propel the artist backwards again until he hit the edge of Deidara's bed.

The next thing Deidara knew he was on his back, on his bed. Before he could rise, Tobi settled on his abdomen and captured his mouth again. Deidara emitted a small noise of protest, which was ignored as Tobi slipped an ungloved hand under the blue shirt, stroking the soft, unmarked skin. Tobi lightly, yet firmly grinded their erections together, earning a jerk from the younger male as a shudder tore through the smaller body.

Fuck! Deidara cursed inwardly. His fingers twitched, he really wanted to go! But each passing moment, his desire to do so bled out and he found himself far more compelled to stay. It wasn't like the document was going anywhere. With that thought in mind, Deidara snaked his arms up to grip the dark shirt, feeling a strong urge to touch. Tobi's face, when he had touched it back at the inn, had been soft and smooth. Was the rest of his skin the same?

Releasing his hold on the material, he glided his mouthed hands under the shirt; he felt Tobi jolt a little as his fingers brushed firm muscle yet _soft._

Tobi smirked against the artist's mouth as he felt the other relax, signaling that he no longer planned to resist. Good. He pulled away, allowing the blond to breathe as he quickly freed himself of his shirt, tossing it to the side without so much as a glance; Deidara's shirt followed a few moments after. Tobi ran one hand over the smooth chest, lightly stroking before brushing over a nipple, receiving a small jerk and a groan.

As Tobi went about pinching and kneading the little nub, Deidara ran his hand over Tobi's _very_ defined abs, occasionally his mouthed hand would lick at it.

Tobi buried his face in the lightly tan neck, trailing his wet tongue across the smooth, sensitive skin, occasionally nipping as he went lower.

Deidara struggled to keep his moans from escaping his mouth, finding it embarrassing, yet as time slowly ticked he found more moans spilling out. The pleasurable feelings shooting through him left him unconcerned and he focused on the feel of Tobi's skin.

Tobi wrapped his mouth around the blond's other nipple, brushing his tongue over it once before sucking.

"Ah..!" Deidara moaned, his back arching slightly.

Tobi smirked, releasing his hold on the other nipple; he trailed his fingers, feather-like over the smooth skin before lightly stroking as he moved farther down. Upon reaching the artist's covered thigh, he paused for a moment, refocusing on just the nipple in his mouth, lightly grazing it with his teeth, receiving a small jerk and muttered moan.

With a relatively wide smirk Tobi pulled away, shifting his attention onto the blond's arousal. Slowly, lightly, _teasingly_, Tobi trailed a hand over the covered arousal, instantly earning a moan followed by a muttered curse as Deidara bucked under the touch. Tobi rubbed the blond's length through the blue material, watching as the artist squirmed and twisted, his face scrunched up in pleasure, his eyes screwed shut, his mouth parted a little as he panted and moaned. Tobi marveled the blond's expression, his smirk growing as he realized that it was _his_ doing… that he had this power over the blond.

Tobi pressed more firmly against Deidara's arousal, ignoring the constant twitching of his own, and bent down, capturing the artist's mouth roughly.

Deidara made an unidentifiable noise before working his mouth against Tobi's, his tongue met the raven's but he didn't bother to fight for dominance. His fingers fisted tightly into the bed sheets, focusing more on Tobi's hand than the kiss.

Deidara groaned into the kiss, as his member throbbed, his hands shooting up to grip onto the older nin. Tobi released the teen's mouth, trailing his wet tongue down the artist's cheek.

"T-tobi!" Deidara panted out frustrated.

Tobi's gaze locked with blue orbs to see the heated glare on the blond's face, which missed the effect due to the brilliant sheen of red across the lightly tan cheeks and his smirk widened, "What _Senpai?_"

Deidara scowled, a bit of a sulky expression situating onto his face before biting his lip.

Tobi couldn't hold in a laugh, which earned him a light hit to his arm, "Alright, alright." Tobi stopped his rubbing, earning a disappointed noise from the blond and hooked his fingers beneath the blue pants and without any hesitation pulled the pants down, boxers and all.

Deidara moaned lowly as his member was exposed to the cool air and much to his embarrassment felt his blush increase. It didn't help that Tobi was gazing at him so intently he felt as if he was seeing _through_ him. It was as if Tobi was _judging_ him… It left him feeling uncomfortable. It was kind of like their first time, yet he didn't feel as nauseous and felt more comfortable with how things worked.

"T-tobi…" Deidara uttered in a soft whine.

Tobi's eyes darted up to the blue orbs, noting the discomfort, bending down he pressed his mouth lightly, yet firmly against the artist's mouth in a chaste kiss. "You're so beautiful, Deidara."

Deidara swallowed thickly, trying to will away the sudden knot in his throat, but couldn't help but bask in the momentary flash of warmth from the words. If it had been _anyone else_ that had called him 'beautiful' he would have bombed them into oblivion.

As Tobi shifted to the lightly tan neck, Deidara moved his hands down from the older nin's shoulders, gliding his fingers over the _soft_, defined skin before stilling as he reached the dark black material of the other's pants.

Last time Tobi had been mostly clothed… That wasn't _fair…_ With his left hand he gripped the edge and lightly tugged, knowing he wouldn't be able to pull them off himself, but hoped Tobi would get the hint.

Tobi stopped his sucking on the artist's neck, pulling up leaving some space, allowing his hot, moist breath to fan onto the wet skin, which sent a light shudder through the younger male. Then he lowered his mouth back down and bit hard into the sensitive skin, earning a startled yelp of pain which quickly turned into a moan as he sucked on the small wound.

Deidara's forehead creased in slight irritation, as his breathing turned uneven again and he tugged on the material again, uttering a soft, somewhat whine, "T-tobi…!"

Tobi smirked against the flesh, flicking his tongue over the overly wet patch of skin before pulling away. His eyes roved quickly over the frustrated expression, his smirk inching wider before snapping his hands to his pants and quickly shimming out of them. Tossing the article to the side without so much as a glance, Tobi bent his head down and swiftly captured Deidara's mouth searingly earning a muffled 'humph'. With his left hand Tobi grasped one of the blond's mouthed hands and guided it towards his hard arousal. Deidara startled, his flush deepening as he registered what he was touching, but he quickly shook off his discomfort and embarrassment. He wrapped his hand around the large length and with a vague remembrance of what Tobi did their first time, slowly moved his hand up and down.

Tobi broke the kiss with a light grunt at the slow rhythm down below, before trailing his mouth to the artist's chin, then sliding to the smooth, sensitive neck and going lower.

Deidara felt his member twitch at the low, deep guttural noise, and sped up his pace a little. Tobi hummed in light satisfaction as he roamed his hands over the smooth, unblemished skin of the blond's upper body, slowly making his way down to the one place the artist needed, _wanted_ to be touched.

Tobi pulled his head up, his mouth leaving the wet skin as his left hand reached a thigh. Lightly, feather-like, Tobi stroked the smooth soft skin, smirking a tad as the leg twitched before sliding his right hand down the blond's side wrapping his hand around the weeping arousal and swiftly pumped it.

Deidara's mouth dropped, "Ah," as an uncontrollable moan slipped out and his hand stilled unintentionally.

As Tobi glided in steady rhythm, Deidara's breathing became irregular. His eyes were shut tight at the wonderful feelings shooting through him.

Tobi tipped his head enough to graze his teeth over the artist's ear, not minding the lack of movement on his own aching arousal. He lifted his free hand, holding up three fingers in front of the blond's face, giving a light demand, "Suck."

Deidara blinked his eyes open at the word, his vision being blocked by three pale fingers. Remembering the importance of this, he allowed Tobi to insert all three digits into his moist mouth, with no hesitation.

As Deidara coated Tobi's fingers thoroughly, Tobi continued to pump the hard, dripping arousal and nibbled on the shell of the artist's ear.

Deidara trailed his tongue slowly over each finger, slipping in sucking, like on a lollypop as his eyes slipped closed. Mentally preparing himself for what was about to happen.

Finally Tobi pulled his fingers out, once he deemed them sufficiently coated in saliva. Sitting up, he moved in between the blond's legs and propped them up. He glided one, wet finger down the slim thigh before placing it at blond's entrance, teasing the puckered hole.

Instantly Deidara tensed, inwardly berating himself. He knew what it would feel like and knew it would get much better, but despite knowing that he couldn't help but tense up.

Tobi inserted the first finger into the amazing warmth, the _wonderfully_ amazing warmth that would soon house his aching member. He felt the blond tense farther, and with a mutter stated, "Relax," Tobi snaked his free hand to the dripping length of the artist and firmly began to pump it, hoping to help distract the younger male.

After a few moments Tobi inserted another finger, despite the fact that Deidara was still pretty tense, earning a light whimper of pain. Tobi increased his pace on the hard arousal as he spread his fingers in different directions, scissoring to make room for his larger length.

Deidara buried his fingers into the bed sheets, his knuckles white from the strain, his jaw locked and his eyes screwed shut. His breath coming raggedly, light sweat inched its way down the side of his forehead. He grunted with each thrust and prods and tried to relax his muscles, remembering quite clearly from the first time that it would hurt more otherwise.

Finally Tobi pushed in the third and final finger, receiving a low, lightly strained hiss and a burning feeling. Tobi pushed and prodded before digging as deep as he could, hoping to brush against the little bundle of nerves that would send the artist over the edge with pleasure.

After a few moments of nothing, Tobi angled his fingers to the left and edged in a little deeper. Instantly Deidara jerked, a loud gasp of pleasure leaving his mouth, Tobi rubbed that spot repeatedly, this time Deidara bucked, "T-tobi!"

Tobi smirked, eye-riveted Deidara's face and enjoyed the way he squirmed and jerked as he hit that magic spot.

Finally Tobi pulled his fingers out, deeming the blond well prepared. Deidara whined at the loss, his eyes opening to lock on the raven's form in rapt attention, knowing what was going to happen.

Releasing the hard length Tobi grabbed onto the slim, smooth legs and draped them around his shoulders and pressed his frustratingly aching length against the blond's entrance.

"Ready?" Tobi asked searchingly.

Deidara swallowed thickly, locking his jaw, his fingers digging further into the sheets and despite his heart racing like mad, he nodded. He was much better prepared for it this time and he _knew_ ultimately the pain would pale to the pleasure.

Tobi eyed the younger male's expression for a brief still moment, noticing no hesitation and nodded. Steadily Tobi pushed his lengthy member in, reaching the first ring of tight muscles and almost losing it from the warmth and feel of the blond around his length.

Deidara immediately tensed, biting his lip at the pain, willing it to pass, a part of him had hoped that it wouldn't hurt nearly as much seeing as this was their second time.

Tobi bent down, trailing his moist, wet tongue up the artist's neck as he fully sheathed himself within the tight heat.

Deidara bit harder to keep the threatening shout of pain at bay, ultimately piercing the thin skin causing a thin amount of blood to dribble down his chin. Deidara released his death grip on the sheets and swiftly grabbed onto the broad pale shoulders, his nails lightly digging into the other's skin, creating light red marks.

Tobi shifted to the blond's mouth, slowly, tantalizingly so, licked up the blood before smashing his mouth onto the artist's mouth, who emitted a gasp before it was silenced. Tobi roamed his tongue over teeth and gums, re-familiarizing himself before running his tongue over the blond's, attempting to coax the other to kiss back. It took a few moments, but Deidara gradually worked his mouth against Tobi's, focusing intently on the kiss rather than the pain, another part of him settling on the steady pace of Tobi's hand around his hard length.

Slowly Deidara found himself relaxing, having slowly grown accustomed to having Tobi's huge size in him, though it helped that this wasn't the first time. Deidara loosened his hold on Tobi's shoulders and wrapped his arms around Tobi's head, his fingers lightly grazing Tobi's short, spiky hair, before jerking his hips a little, silently conveying Tobi to move.

Tobi broke the heated kiss, enabling Deidara to breathe as he acknowledged the motion by pulling out almost completely before thrusting back in a strong, sturdy yet still somewhat gentle rhythm aiming for the bundle of nerves.

Deidara winced and grunted with each thrust.

Tobi angled his thrusting a little and immediately Deidara's eyes shot open as he cried out in rapture. Tobi smirked at finding the magic spot and proceeded to hit that spot from then on.

Deidara moaned and panted, his arms tightening around the other's neck at the wonderful feelings of pleasure shooting through him.

Tobi shifted, his knees digging into the mattress while he propped the artist up a little more so that he could go deeper, causing a throaty moan to escape the gasping blond.

Tobi bent his head down, settling it on Deidara's, their hot breaths intermingling. Tobi ghosted a few fingers over a thigh before wrapping around the blond's neglected member and began stroking in time with his thrusts, twisting his hand up and down making him putty in his hands.

"Ah… T-tobi!" Deidara gasped in a lustful voice as he felt a strong tightening in the pit of his stomach and knew he wasn't going to last much longer.

Tobi sped up his pumping, shifting his head so that his mouth brushed the artist's ear and purred sensuously, "Come for me, _Senpai!_"

Those words struck deep, sending a strong shudder through the blond, "T-tobi!" Deidara chocked out.

Tobi thrust hard and deep and Deidara tensed, a wave of unbelievable pleasure washing over him as his orgasm swept through his body, causing him to arch off the bed and into Tobi, a loud shout, "T-tobi!" leaving him.

Hearing his name shouted from those lovely lips pushed him over the edge and sent him into his own orgasm. He silently rode the wave out as he bit down hard in lust on the blond's shoulder, earning a small pained whimper before sucking.

Tobi pulled out, receiving a light wince as he did so and placed the blond's legs back onto the bed and gathered the tired artist into a strong yet possessive embrace. He pressed his face into damp, silky hair, muttering deeply, "I like when you say my name."

Deidara mumbled incoherently and pressed closer to the heavenly warmth, allowing his eyes to slip shut. As much as he wanted to get up and leave to see that document, he was perfectly comfortable with staying where he was and basking in the afterglow.

As Deidara's breathing regulated, signaling that he was asleep, Tobi carefully shifted the artist out of his arms and stood. Quickly gathering his clothes he dressed and with one last lingering look at his blond, left the room.

~ End

The lemon wasn't planned, Dei was to be insistent – about not doing it and Tobi in the end let him have his way. But, :/ it didn't want to go that way, I like the way it came out so I'm happy.

I couldn't think of a better title :/ my creative thinking just wouldn't work. Title subject to change.

Posted: 03/12/2013


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

To anonymous reviewer Jax – Thanks for leaving a review! Glad someone likes them as brothers :) I knew that not everyone would be thrilled… but I can't make everyone happy…

To anonymous reviewer ReadsAgainAgain – Thanks for taking the time to review! Glad you are enjoying the story to such an extent that u re-read this :). I do not plan to abandon this, I will finish this! Updates just may be slow at times. (Like currently :/)

To guest reviewer – thanks for taking the time to leave a review, even though it was just about the next update :)

Sorry that I am once again later than a month! But I have good reasons! First being that I had massive writers block, I remember a sentence out of a whole conversation and only vaguely the scene… I had this thought out before starting this story and when I finally decided to use the part… couldn't remember! Nothing is working… but I will keep straining to remember! Second, the semester is ending and I've had projects and finals… and that's more important than writing… unfortunately. But the summer is here and I am about done with classes that updates should be faster, at the very least within my month time frame. Edit: I have been done with classes for about three weeks, but it's finally beta'ed.

Edited by JJKMagic – thanks!

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 18 – A Not So Unexpected Revelation

The dimly lit room was quiet; the soft glow of the flame from the small candle encompassed almost the whole length of the paper covered desk. Pein mildly wished for actual light briefly, but the thought didn't stay long as he went through the piles of paper in an almost mindless motion. So focused that he missed the small, almost inaudible noise of the door opening, the one situated near the desk that lead to his private quarters.

"Pein," a soft, female voice floated over to him, breaking the quiet of the room, save for the small noises from pen on paper.

Pein didn't pause in his work, only lightly tilting his head, signaling Konan to speak.

Konan's orange colored eyes surveyed the sitting male, her face slack and unreadable as usual. She dared not show her emotions too much, and even though she felt more comfortable doing so in the presence of Pein, a part of her always felt the need to keep a mask in place.

She stood outside the soft glow of the candle, remaining shrouded in the shadows, her eyes briefly locking to the door on the other side of the room before lowering them back to the other occupant.

"Will this be a problem?" Lightly referring to the conversation she had overheard earlier.

Pein's brow furrowed, "Madara?"

Konan shook her head lightly, her short blue hair softly hitting her chin as she did so, "Dei."

Pein's hand froze in mid sign, and he resisted the urge to turn and look at her, "It shouldn't be." Deidara knowing his origins shouldn't be a problem. Not one that would impede them, not about… _that._

Plus Madara would do what he could to keep the blond from doing something foolish and would no doubt work on keeping a meeting from occurring with the kid. And so would he.

"It's hard to believe that he finally knows… We worked so hard to keep it secret," Konan murmured softly, sadly. She cared about Deidara a lot, he was the youngest and she couldn't help but feel somewhat motherly towards him. She wasn't prone to babying him or anything but she tried to help him where she could, urge him to come to her if he _just_ needed to talk. Of course she cared about the other members, but only to _some_ degree. The Akatsuki were, in a way like a family. And she cherished it, didn't want to lose it. And Dei finding out, it left a seed of worry that she would _lose_ him to a brother he didn't even know. _They_ were his family. She hoped that he would see that.

Pein sighed loosely as he went back to writing, "It was bound to come out someday. You should be glad that it lasted for as long as it did." He certainly was, even though he would have liked for it to remain buried.

Besides the fault wasn't theirs, it was that leaf nin's. Somehow the Leaf had discovered the information, whether they believed it or not was another matter. But he knew that they would use such information if it meant causing problems for them. Causing doubt was an often used tactic, the information didn't have to be true, and it was all about screwing with the target. Of course that was before he'd destroyed the village, who was to say that anyone who survived were the ones who knew? Hopefully the information was lost and hopefully the kid… Naruto didn't know.

Pein shook his head to rid himself of his thoughts, no sense in dwelling on such things, not when there were _far_ more important things in need of attention.

Konan nodded lightly, even though she knew Pein couldn't see it. Her eyes involuntarily drifted back to the door on the other side of the room, before sighing heavily.

"I've gotten everything and it's set up."

Pein's hand froze again, and his eyes darted up to the closed door in front of him. They dropped quickly, not feeling anything. Madara had said he and Deidara would be leaving shortly; perhaps they had already done so. He couldn't see why they wouldn't have…

"Good." Pein murmured, already knowing what Konan was referring to, without her actually saying it.

Konan crossed her arms, not missing the sudden tenseness to the orange haired male, "When do we…?" She trailed off, hesitant to actually _voice_ it aloud, not when Madara could hear. She didn't believe he was still here because if she did, she wouldn't have brought it up. But a part of her still felt _safer_ not saying it aloud, even though she had before.

"Soon." Pein answered. His eyes closed in thought for a moment before opening to stare unseeingly at the words on the paper in front of him. "After the destruction of leaf, it can be certain that a mandatory conference with the five Kage's will be called." He paused, almost _feeling_ the nod from Konan, "Madara will no doubt have something planned for that."

Konan frowned, her arms tightening against her chest, "How does that… I've already set it up. We don't exactly _need_ more time… Do we?"

Pein set his pen down, he wouldn't be getting more writing done right now, and interlaced his fingers. "Not _necessarily._" It shouldn't be too hard getting _him_ to Ame but there was still the matter of…

Konan's eyes lit with comprehension, "Zetsu." She murmured inadvertently stopping the name from being said in Pein's thoughts.

Pein bobbed his head, settling his chin onto his steepled hands, "I am still unsure of where Zetsu's loyalty lies. But I am leaning more towards him siding with Madara." But he wasn't _sure_. And Zetsu was a valuable member, and their only spy. But they couldn't come right out and a_sk_ him; that would be _dangerous_.

"We may just have to accept the loss." As unfortunate as that would be…

Pein let the thought die with a sigh.

"We can't lure Zetsu," Konan informed him softly.

Pein gave a light shake of his head. "No, we can't," he agreed. He closed his eyes in thought for a few moments, "We can decide afterward. Zetsu's not a strong fighter."

Konan frowned, while that was true, she felt it would be better to have everything planned before they started. But Pein was the leader so she kept her silence.

Unbeknownst to them their conversation had been overheard.

~88

Tobi made his way down the poorly lit corridor, feeling ecstatic despite the fact that he was about to inform Pein what Deidara would be doing. He was one hundred percent against it, but it _may_ work in his favor. Once Deidara saw that document he would have no more reason to peruse this topic. Then all that would be left would be to capture and extract the nine-tails for once that was done he wouldn't have to worry about anything happening between the two.

He abruptly came to a stop, a corridor away from where he had left Deidara. "What is it?" he asked lightly, he was still in a good mood.

There was slight rustling to the left and he tilted his head in expectation.

"We overheard something _really _interesting," The soft voice of Zetsu's white side informed.

Tobi cocked his head farther towards the plant man, curious. He hadn't anticipated Zetsu being here but it made sense seeing as he knew that Zetsu had wanted to watch Pein capture the nine-tails. Speaking of which, he would have to get the full story later.

"Remember when you said Pein and Konan were behaving odd?" The white side asked only to be cut off by his other side.

"**Hah, odd, more like suspicious!"**

Tobi patiently waited, very used to the other's constant arguing with himself. But his interest perked, and he found himself itching to hear what Zetsu had to say.

Zetsu's white side managed to quiet his dark side and resumed speaking, "They were being all 'hush, hush' and-"

The dark side grunted in irritation and interrupted in a deep, gravel tone, **"Konan says she has everything set up-"**

His light side quickly cut in, none too happy about being interrupted, "it sounds like they _are_ planning to betray you."

And just like that, Tobi's good mood vanished. "I see," he murmured emotionlessly.

It felt good to know that he had caught on, and had been_ right_ but being right meant trouble and another problem in need of being dealt with.

He thought back to when he had taken notice, Konan had never been fond of him but he would catch her glaring at him and while that was a given as Tobi, it was when he _wasn't_ being Tobi that he had received those glares. He'd paid more attention, and the distinct change had been shortly after Dei's suicide attempt. Konan had not forgiven him for the simple fact that he had allowed Dei to come so close to killing himself, as if he, at the time would have known the blond's intentions.

From then on he had taken more notice of what went on when he _wasn't _around. His precautions had paid off. He wasn't sure how long Konan and Pein had been conspiring against him, maybe from the beginning… but he was pretty certain it had been before Deidara's attempted suicide. He found it distinctly impossible that Pein and Konan betraying him had to do with Dei almost dying. Konan, _maybe; _but not Pein. So their plotting had to have at the very least started before that.

Tobi shook his head as he rid himself of his thoughts, and refocused on the present. "Anything else?"

"Hmm…" Zetsu's light said hummed thoughtfully, but he received a response from the darker side of the plant man.

"**They were simply wondering where I stood."**

The light side of the green plant tilted his head, his yellow orb giving a slow, mildly confused blink, "You mean we."

Zetsu, his darker side growled in agitation and snapped, **"He knows what I mean!"** They were the same person, referred to as the same person, so when either of them said 'I' it meant the both of them, usually.

Tobi sighed silently, as the plant male bickered, that certainly gave a full picture of planning a betrayal. "Did they mention anything about Deidara?" He was sure that he had covered every base concerning the blond. If Pein and Konan had found out that Dei held knowledge about him and his place in the organization, they were bound to do _something_… whether that was a good thing for Dei remained unseen. He couldn't fathom how they _could_ have found out he told…

The plant male immediately ceased bickering, "Just about Deidara finding out about his origins and if it would impede them. I don't believe they know you informed him."

Tobi closed his eye in relief, if they had known, he was sure it would have been farther discussed… unless…

"Did they discover you?" Tobi demanded sharply.

"**No."**

Tobi angled his head but did not glance back at the plant like male.

"They made no sign of realizing they were being watched, they seemed more concerned that someone would be listening outside the door," Zetsu's light side elaborated. "If they had noticed, they would have shifted stealthily over to a safe topic." Not that that would have done them much good, the damage would have already been done, unless the eavesdropper hadn't been privy to much of the conversation and didn't hear anything damaging.

"Good." Tobi stated, his hidden relief absent from his tone. Zetsu had ultimately been informed of his relationship with Deidara; mostly for the sole fact that the yellow eyed male was his spy, and would eventually become suspicious if he constantly left the artist when he wasn't supposed to. (And Dei would become suspicious and more than likely tell Pein of Tobi's mysterious absences.) So he had decided that it would be easier and simpler to tell Zetsu. He didn't regret doing so, Zetsu was completely loyal to him and would never betray him, he was adamantly certain.

His thoughts skidded to a halt as Zetsu's white side asked, softly, curiously, "What do you plan to do?"

Tobi frowned at the problem at hand. He couldn't very well let them live. If he didn't kill them they would _try _to kill him. And that would only serve to lose time he didn't have. Besides… his frown deepened as anger surged, 'How dare they betray me!'

Just as quickly the anger left, it would do him no good getting worked up, and he returned to his contemplating. From what Zetsu said, Konan and Pein had something set up, something that would most likely kill him, or at least, they thought it would. Perhaps he should let them keep thinking he had no idea of their intentions… Or he could hint that he suspected, possibly even _knew_, that would certainly bother them, penetrate their brains with 'what if's... And they may slip up or even put their plan in motion sooner than planned. Whatever it was, he was sure he would have no problem dealing with it.

Tobi sighed, not quite sure what would be best.

"I'm not sure yet." Tobi answered belatedly. "But continue keeping an eye on them."

"**Of course."** The darker side of the plant male growled.

Zetsu thinking that the conversation was over was about to slip back into the stone wall when the masked nin asked, "Is Kisame here?" stopping them from doing so.

The yellow orbs blinked, but didn't ponder the unrelated question. "Yes, he's been here since Itachi died."

Tobi nodded lightly. Good. That made things simpler.

"**Yeah moping!" **The dark side stated in disgust.

"Kisame was close to Itachi," the light side imputed, "it's only natural he'd be upset."

"**He should get over it, all he does is watch drama shows and pig out on ice-cream. He's acting like… like a blasted female!"**

Zetsu's light side sighed dearly, "Would you not be upset if it was me?"

A scoff was his answer. **"It wouldn't **_**be**_** you****,****" **The darker side said more calmly, but in an irritated tone.

Tobi sighed heavily and started heading back down the poorly lit corridor, not wanting to hear them argue, especially about Kisame being depressed over Itachi. He couldn't completely fault Kisame for how he was coping, if he even was. He wouldn't handle it well if Deidara had died, but he wouldn't be moping around, no he'd do something productive. Starting with killing those responsible (Dei wasn't necessarily suicidal, so if he did blow himself up it would be because he was pushed into it. Not that at this point it mattered, Dei couldn't use his chest mouth, thanks to the seal, and he was almost certain that the artist wouldn't use anything else to 'go out in a bang'.)

He shook his head lightly, not that it mattered; Deidara was _not_ going to die! He would see to it.

The sounds of Zetsu's arguing faded to a silent hum as he got farther and farther away, as he reached the last stretch towards Pein's chambers, he could no longer hear a whisper of the plant male's arguing.

~88

Pein filled in the paper work in the quiet that followed their conversation. Konan reminded stationary just outside the glow of the candle. Both were startled from their thoughts as the door opened unexpectedly. While it wasn't uncommon to have uninvited members, most usually knocked, and the only other person here besides the two of them was Kisame.

Unless…

Pein had a sudden ill feeling, and he was sure Konan did to, his ears picked up a slight hitch of breath from Konan, confirming his prior thought.

His suspicions were confirmed as Madara entered. His throat went dry, his mind swirled. Had Madara overheard what they said!?

It was _possible._

Madara had proved that he could be in the same room as him and go unnoticed. His chest tightened, constricting, making it almost difficult to breathe. Did he know? If Madara discovered what they planned to do before they could actually _do_ it… He was confident that he could take Madara but if Madara saw it coming…

Konan's idea sounded the most successful but they hadn't counted on Madara finding out.

He eyed the swirled orange mask and the other's posture. He didn't _seem_ like he knew about their betrayal, he didn't seem angry.

Perhaps Madara didn't know…

Pein straightened, internally grateful at both Konan's and his ability to remain expressionless. Something they had mastered years ago shortly after meeting Madara. They wouldn't have survived this long around the raven otherwise, let alone been able to conspire against the Uchiha.

Madara stopped several paces from the wooden desk, just about popping the soft bubble of light from the candle situated on the paper littered desk.

Pein lightly cleared his throat, deciding to break the silence first, trying to gauge if the raven knew, "I thought you said you would be leaving soon?" Madara had made no indication that he had anything else he needed to talk to him about, so why hadn't he left?

The masked nin cocked his head very slightly to the left, beneath his mask lay a calm façade, despite the anger curling under his skin and wanting, _threatening _to burst free but he repressed the urge. Right now, keeping the fact that he knew was in his favor.

"Change of plans." Tobi rumbled deeply, almost missing the quirk of Pein's thin eyebrow. Anyone else would see the gesture as curiosity but having known Pein for years and being privy of what had shortly transpired in this room saw it as slight weary concern. Pein was afraid that their secret was out. He distantly wondered how many other signs he had missed in the past before shooing the thought away, that was not a concern, he knew _now. _And that was what mattered.

Pein waited silently, his rinnegan eyes boring into the shadowed orange mask.

"I want you to send Deidara and Kisame on a mission," Tobi informed him, not paying much attention to the still form behind Pein.

Pein couldn't help the light surprise that traveled across his pierced face, he hadn't seen _that_ coming. But the words allowed him to relax, if Madara had found out he would not have spoken in his cool, demanding tone, ordering him to send out two members, no, instead he was sure there would have been anger, and probably killing… Some of the strain left his stiff shoulders as he slouched a little, almost fully confident that their secret was safe for the time being.

"Oh?" Pein hummed, ignoring the subtle shift from Konan, "I thought you and Deidara were taking care of Kabuto?" Pein inclined his head, "what happened to that?"

Tobi waved a gloved hand casually through the air, in a vague dismissive manner, "apparently that leaf nin left a prominent impression on Deidara, he's determined to see the original copy." He sighed loosely, "You know how obstinate Deidara is. Even if we tell him no, he's going to find some way to see it. Or try to…" Trying to foil the blond's attempts, whatever they may be would waste precious time, ultimately it was simpler and time conserving if he just allowed the artist to go see it.

Pein nodded, knowing full well how stubborn the artist was, "Still, it's a risk not worth taking. Why allow it?" Pein closed his eyes for a brief moment while interlacing his fingers, "Why does he want to see it? He already knows."

Tobi crossed his arms, giving a mildly irritated shake of his head. "I cannot fathom why… I suspect it's mostly to see it with his _own_ eyes, to see the proof." Tobi tilted his head back a bit, his lone gaze not leaving Pein's. "Something tells me it would be best to allow Deidara to see it."

Pein lightly frowned, wanting to voice all the stupid reasons why allowing this suicidal and pointless mission to happen was a bad idea but knew that Madara was not _asking_, he was telling. So he didn't waste his breath. Plus he was sure Madara had reviewed all the angles, good and bad before ultimately deciding. He clearly felt that allowing Deidara to go was the best in the long run and that it wouldn't/ shouldn't impede the Akatsuki.

"Why Kisame?" Pein asked instead, mostly since he wanted to know why Madara wasn't going. It wasn't common to send two members that weren't partners out on a mission.

Tobi refrained from scoffing in derision, "Kisame has the most chakra out of all the members, and he is also the only one available."

Pein nodded slowly, knowing that at the very least he and Madara himself were not included in that statement.

"Unless," Tobi hummed in false thoughtfulness, his eye slowly drifting to the third occupant in the room who had yet to say anything since he entered, "Konan would like to accompany Deidara instead. I'm _sure_ she must be bored watching you fill out paper work." Tobi rolled his head back, giving the impression that he was reliving some tension, "or are you _actually_ doing something productive?" he pointedly asked the blue haired female.

He was not overly fond of Konan; in fact he wasn't fond of her in the slightest. Mostly for the sole fact that she was female, but accepting Pein into the organization also meant accepting Konan, as they were a packaged deal. She was the lone exception. It didn't help that whenever he saw her, she was always besides Pein, hardly ever actively doing anything too far from the false leader.

To her credit Konan didn't outwardly display her surprise and mild unsettling feeling that swept through her. Something about his words, gave her the impression that he _knew_… suspected what she was up to. But that was _absurd_, if Madara knew, he wouldn't be beating around the bush.

…

She didn't think…

Konan blinked slowly, just barely refraining from biting her lip, and strained to see into the darkened eye hole but knew she would not be able to due to the distinct lack of light. Unintentionally, after giving up on seeing the red orb, her eyes drifted to Pein, who she had half expected to say something in regards to Madara's suggestion. She didn't truly believe Madara really intended her to go instead of Kisame so she couldn't quite fathom why he bothered mentioning it.

She returned her gaze back to the masked raven and calmly stated, "If that is what you want," completely ignoring the question.

Tobi studied the expressionless face ponderingly before settling back onto Pein, who somewhat surprisingly hadn't spoken up.

"No, Kisame is better suited." And to be honest he felt more comfortable sending Kisame then Konan. After all Kisame wasn't the one planning to betray him. Even though he knew that Konan would never harm Deidara, because like everyone else in the organization she had developed a soft spot for the kid but if she found out about their relationship… well he wasn't quite as sure then.

Konan nodded once, in light acceptance, not bothering to push to go. Her place was besides Pein and she too felt that Kisame was the better choice for getting into Iwa.

"Why aren't you going?" Pein finally blurted out. While it wasn't wise to question Madara, it helped if they had a general idea on what he was doing and where he would be. And sometimes asking was the only option. Madara wasn't very forthcoming on a lot of things, especially when it was about him personally.

Tobi raised an eyebrow at Pein's bluntness even as a light frown settled onto his face; Pein wasn't one to bother with such trivial questions. But given the fact that they _are_ planning to betray him, it made sense, in a way.

"I have something more pressing to see to." Tobi informed without actually telling much of anything. While it wasn't a big deal to tell Pein and Konan about the gathering of the Kages, that he _knew_ would be happening soon, it was more _fun_ to make them work for it. If they r_eally_ wanted to know, they'd find some way to find out. Though news traveled fast and he was sure that once word of the get together reached Pein's ears they would put it together.

Pein nodded slowly, refraining from pushing, knowing when to draw the line.

Tobi shifted to the side, eye roving over the darkened wall before him before angling back towards the orange haired male, "By the way…"

Pein inclined his head when Madara paused, for a brief ephemeral moment thinking Madara _did know_ before chiding himself for getting worked up as the raven continued.

"Where are Hidan and Kakuzu?" Tobi asked in curiosity. He often left assigning missions to Pein, unless there was something he wanted done specifically by a certain member.

Pein settled his chin onto his laced fingers. "They've been out collecting bounties." He paused, eyeing the unreadable male for an moment before asking, "Why? Do you require them for something?"

Tobi stifled a heavy sigh, quite irritated at Pein feeling the _need_ to question him on _anything_. It was so much easier when he ordered and Pein nodded and followed through…

"No, I was just wondering," Tobi stated. He had been debating on sending the pair to capture the eight tails, seeing as Sasuke and his team had epically failed. But he had begun thinking that sending Kisame was the smarter choice, the shark nin had far more chakra… but to send him he would have to wait till after he returned with Deidara…

Tobi turned back towards the two, still staying outside the glow of the candle, "Actually, send them to capture the eight tails."

Pein's eyes widened for a single moment in surprise, "Sasuke and his group failed?" He inwardly scoffed, he hadn't been the least bit thrilled for the younger Uchiha to have anything to do with the Akatsuki. He would rather kill him. After all Sasuke had spent the majority of his life training to kill Itachi and now that Itachi was dead, Sasuke was _fine_ with helping the organization his brother had been a part of? He found it unlikely that Sasuke was truly interested in their goals, and someone like that had no place in the organization. Especially since a part of him was sure that once Sasuke accomplished whatever it was he was aiming for he would leave, and most likely cause damage to the Akatsuki in some way. He was better off dead.

But to go against Madara was dangerous, and telling him that he felt that Sasuke should be killed would only incur the older nin's wrath. Not something he wanted to do… besides all he had to do was wait to set Konan's plan into motion and pull it through, then he could have Sasuke killed.

This time Tobi sighed heavily breaking Pein's musing, his eye closing. "Unfortunately…" With a light disappointed shake of his head Tobi turned around towards the door. "Be sure to send them out today, we don't need to waste more time. Then send Kisame as soon as he and Deidara finish their mission." He knew that Pein would tell Kisame precisely what he would have to do should Kakuzu and Hidan fail, as they had gone over Kisame handling the eight-tails at one point.

"Of course." Pein agreed, grateful that this unexpected and undesirable meeting was finished.

Tobi glanced back for a moment taking in the expressionless faces, _knowing_ their true intentions and feeling the beckoning surge again to oust them but instead looked away and without saying anything else left, the door closing with a light 'click'.

Simultaneously Pein and Konan released a breath a few moments later, almost certain that their secret was safe. Doubt, however had been seeded. And would take root and blossom, and they could only hope that they were being paranoid.

~88

A hand firmly grasped a lightly tan shoulder and firmly shook the sleeping form until a low annoyed sound was emitted and Tobi cooed, "Come on, Senpai! Time to get up!"

Deidara's forehead knitted in irritation; stubbornly keeping his eyes clenched shut as he pressed his face into his soft, puffy pillow; silently willing Tobi to leave him alone as he curled up under the thin blanket.

Tobi emitted a small sigh and proceeded his shaking only to have the blond weakly swat at him while using his other arm to pull the blanket over his head.

"Deidara." Tobi demanded in his deep, velvety voice, pausing in jostling the artist.

Deidara simply, stubbornly didn't move as he rudely snapped, "Go away!" He was sore and tired, he didn't want to move!

Tobi shook his head slightly, giving a deep drawn out sigh at the petulant blond. He raised his right gloved hand, sweeping it through his short, spiky hair, lightly ruffling it, before letting his arm drop, as if it weighed a ton and he didn't have the energy to support it.

"I thought you wanted to see that document?" Tobi stated knowingly, smugly.

Beneath his warm blanket Deidara's blue orbs opened, staring unseeingly at the dark material. He did! And he would already be on his way if Tobi hadn't insisted on having sex. A deep royal flush flared at the mere _thought_ and he scoffed lightly, inaudibly. Though he couldn't fault Tobi for that, it had been _amazing_, and wonderful… just like the first time. And if he wasn't so tired and _sore_ he'd get up, but he was not looking forward to moving, for the second he even attempted to do so, he knew the pain from their activity would flare and walking... argh he didn't even want to think about it!

At Deidara's silence, Tobi had to hold in a weary sigh. He knew Deidara would be hurting and if he could he'd let the artist sleep longer but he _had_ to get up and get going.

"Dei…" Tobi started only to trail off with a frown. Closing his eye Tobi stated, "You have to get up. I've already informed Pein. You and Kisame have to leave today."

Deidara jolted a tad, his eyes slipping closed, part of him irritated but it _was_ what he wanted… but he was _so_ warm and the document _wasn't_ going anywhere. He just didn't have the will, or the energy to get up.

When the blond _still_ didn't respond nor move Tobi gave an ultimatum, "Then I guess I'll just have to keep pestering you and _poking_ you till you get up!" his tone smug, mischievous.

Deidara inwardly froze, his eyes popping open in light horror and dread. He swallowed tightly, knowing that Tobi was serious and would act on what he said.

Fuck! Deidara furiously groaned inwardly.

But before he had time to debate getting up _before_ Tobi did _anything_, his eyes closed as his body tilted and his face pressed a bit farther into the firm yet soft bed due to the firm prod from the masked nin. Hair slipped down his face, and with half lidded eyes, he inwardly growled, _stupid Tobi!_

"Senpai!" Tobi cooed shrilly, making Deidara's ears ring and another bout of prodding followed.

Deidara jerked away from the offending hand and snapped, irritatingly, "Alright un!" flinging the blanket from his face as he did so.

Tobi instantly ceased movement and straightened, giving a cheerily shout in his childish tone, "Good!" He backed up a little at the heated glare causing him to rub the back of his head in an almost sheepish way. "Ah, don't be like that, Senpai! You're the one who wants to see that document so bad! Tobi's only hel-"

A pillow effectively stopped his annoying tirade. Tobi chuckled darkly, amusement coloring his tone as he glanced down briefly to the pillow lying pitifully on the cold, stone floor. "You lost your pillow, Senpai." Tobi informed cheekily.

"Get out!" Deidara snapped with gritted teeth, his upper body in a half way sitting up motion.

Tobi cocked his head, giving the impression that the words confused him. "Why? What did Tobi do?"

Deidara twitched violently, his eyes snapping closed and willing himself to not attack the fucking bastard, knowing that it would not be wise. Damn why couldn't his clay be close? "Get out!" Deidara reiterated, his tone a little more calm.

Tobi wrapped an arm around his back, "You're still not up yet."

Deidara leveled a furious glare at the infuriating raven, wishing his glare could set the other on fire. But as nothing happened, Deidara glanced away, his lightly tangled bang hitting his cheek before blocking his face from view.

"Alright, alright!" Tobi placated, his arms out before him as he moved his fingers.

When the blond remained still, Tobi dropped his arms, his lone visible eye roving of the partially covered form working its way to rumpled hair and hummed questioningly back in his deep, smooth tone. "Do you want to take a shower together?"

Deidara's mouth thinned as his forehead creased, he's kidding right? Why the _hell_ would he take a shower with the bastard after what he just did!? His furious thoughts sharply derailed as gloved knuckles lightly brushed the strands of hair blocking his face out of the way.

Tobi had several things he wanted to say, he even opened his mouth intending to say one of them but instead went with, "You need to hurry." Tobi's hand dropped and he turned around, knowing fully well that after the stunt he pulled, Deidara wouldn't want to shower together.

Deidara watched as Tobi headed towards the door, a heavy sigh leaving him, his anger draining from him. He shouldn't be mad; after all he went along with Tobi and had sex, so it was partly his fault and if he had just gotten up when Tobi told him to…

Deidara slowly, carefully shifted into a sitting position, unable to stop the wince but held back a low grunt of pain. His left hand gripped tightly to the thin blanket that covered him, his eyes staring unseeingly as he inwardly debated.

He didn't know _when_ he would see Tobi once Kisame and he left…

"Tobi…" Deidara uttered quietly, instantly stilling the masked nin who had just reached the door, an arm extended with intentions to pull the door open.

Deidara gritted his teeth as a light pink sheen swept across his face, damn it! It shouldn't be this hard to say!

Tobi angled his head back; an eyebrow rose imploringly, despite the fact that it could not be seen due to his mask. "Yes, Senpai?"

Deidara's head dropped a little, his hair cascading down around him, once again blocking his face, and blurted quickly, "I don't mind…"

Tobi blinked at the rapidly rushed words but with his good hearing had no trouble understanding them, for a moment not sure what the artist was replying to, as his arm dropped and he turned back around to face the sitting form. His mouth opened intent on asking for clarification when he realized he'd asked a question and had _not_ received a response prior. His eye widened, Deidara _wanted_ to shower together! His surprise evaporated quickly and a small, genuine grin formed and he swiftly strode the scant distance to the slightly hunched form and in one smooth motion swept the startled blond into his firm arms, the blanket flowing flimsily back onto the bed. "Then what are we waiting for, Senpai!" Tobi hummed out cheerily, earning a twitch and a glare.

Deidara titled his head down, for some reason this time not minding the fact that Tobi was carrying him like he was a distressed female. He liked having Tobi's arms around him… he felt warm, needed and _safe_ in Tobi's arms. The light sheen darkened, but he'd be damned if he ever admitted it!

Tobi nudged the bathroom door open and disappeared inside, the door clicking softly shut behind them.

~ End

So since my updates have been slow… there will be a festival in this story! What I mean is that Tobi and Dei go to one :). So something to look forward to… if the idea sounds appealing… And I guarantee that it will happen… because I've already written it!

Posted: 05/30/2013


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

To anonymous reviewer Rin Uchiha – Thanks very much for taking the time to leave a review! Oh, good, I sure enjoyed writing the festival scene. Ah, yes the betrayal… well I hope it doesn't disappoint.

To anonymous reviewer Guest – Thanks for reviewing! Glad u liked the fluff moment :)

To anonymous reviewer Guest – Thanks for taking the time to leave a review! All reviews are very much appreciated.

Oh, I should have mentioned this in my last chap, but JJKMagic will no longer be my beta, unfortunately. So this chap is unbeta. I of course have edited myself (I always re-read a chap a few times, but I am not perfect) If there is anyone who would like to beta for me then PM me and we can talk. If not well as I said I do edit myself, so it's not like it will go down vastly in this regard.

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 19 - A Rocky Situation

Deidara scowled fiercely as he strode down the poorly lit corridor, heading towards the entrance, ignoring the dull throb of pain. A nice warm shower had helped a little but not enough to take away the reminder of their activity. As much as he _loved_ having sex with Tobi he could _really_ do without the aftermath pain.

Deidara bit his lip ponderingly, vaguely, would it always hurt? Or would the pain decrease and gradually fade the more they had sex? He supposed he'd just have to wait and see… for he sure as hell wasn't going to ask! Not that feeling pain was bad; he just wasn't a mochiast like Hidan, who thrived off pain.

Deidara shook his head, his long bang hitting him in the cheek but mostly collided with the collar of his Akatsuki cloak. He turned his attention onto more important and pressing issues, like meeting up with Kisame so that they could leave. Shortly after his shower with Tobi, Pein had informed Kisame and him about their mission and to leave as soon as possible.

Kisame had looked the vaguest surprised and Deidara was sure he was wondering _why_ it was so important to retrieve a document when he, Deidara already knew.

The light reminder caused a flash of rage to spike, apparently Kisame and _all_ of the other members had also known about his parentage. He only felt slightly appeased as Kisame blandly yet mildly sheepishly told him that Pein had threatened murder to anyone who so much as spoke a whisper of it. He could see Pein _actually _acting on his threat but not necessarily killing a member for telling him who he was related to, that would be a serious waste of good members and finding strong, capable and willing ninja's were not easy. But pushing farther into it was really not worth it. It was in the past, over and done with and he _knew_ now. Getting mad at Kisame or the others who really had no say was pointless.

Deidara was simply thankful that Kisame hadn't tried to talk Pein out of going, unlike when he'd insisted on killing Sasuke. Part of it, he was sure was because Kisame was hurting over Itachi and getting out and killing sounded appealing. The shark nin could be _very_ beastly and loved to shred his opponents and he hadn't been active for a while, he no doubt felt like doing something productive then sitting.

Deidara _hoped_ Kisame's fighting capabilities weren't suffering due to his depression. He couldn't _really _see Kisame letting his emotions, his depression getting in the way, and if Tobi believed they would he wouldn't be allowing Kisame to tag along. Still, they were going to his former village, they didn't _need_ any mistakes that could be avoided.

Deidara shook his head, from what he had seen earlier, he doubted Kisame would have any trouble fighting. He after all looked bloodthirsty at the prospect of killing, he was more then likely focused on that.

Deidara came to a stop, raising his hand that held the blue ring that all Akatsuki members had to wear and opened the closed entrance. It rumbled lightly before slowly moving to the side, bright sunlight streaming through and Deidara had to close his eyes for a few moments to allow his eyes to adjust to the change. Once he could see Deidara exited the dank, dark base and felt warm, heat wash over him, soaking him. A small light, invisible grin worked its way across his face, replacing the scowl. It was nice to be outside.

Deidara glanced around slowly, eyes roaming over rocks and leaves but no Kisame. Sighing heavily Deidara strode to a decent size rock with an almost smooth top and plopped down gently as he waited for the mist nin to arrive. Deidara gazed up through the tree branches, the light of the sun streaming lightly through, giving them an almost enthralled majestic feeling. As much as it was nice to just sit here, admiring nature, something he didn't do much at all, he _really_ hoped Kisame would hurry up.

The light noises of nature were soothing…

"Ready to go Dei-chan?" An amused Kisame asked.

Deidara jolted at the words, his eyes opening, having not realized he'd closed them and settled onto the form of the shark nin a few paces out of the base. A scowl formed and Deidara snapped, "About time!"

Kisame only raised an eyebrow, "it wasn't _that_ long."

From the heated glare leveled his way, told him that Deidara didn't _care_ how long it had been just that he'd been out here waiting.

Kisame closed his eyes slowly, "we walking?" his tone impassive, uncaring.

Deidara stilled the instant words 'that they would be flying, obviously' and frowned, Kisame was not _fond_ of flying, and he preferred to be on the firm, solid ground. Unfortunately, flying was one of the _best _things in the world! It was a shame that not everyone, hardly anyone agreed with him. Distantly Deidara wondered what Tobi thought of flying, he certainly didn't mind riding on his birds. Did Tobi appreciate the feeling flying gave? Deidara shook his musing off.

"We can walk…" Kisame looked relieved and Deidara didn't remark on it as he added, "so long as we move at a relatively fast pace." He had come to realize that if they had moved at a fast pace on a lot of their missions they wouldn't have had anyone catching up to them, well less likely. Like those leaf nin did when he'd captured the Kazagae. But Sasori always had to travel in his puppet Hiruko and refused to ever set foot on one of his clay birds. So they always moved at the fastest pace of Sasori's traveling puppet, which was not that fast which ultimately got them far too many run-ins with enemy nins.

Kisame simply nodded, having no problem with that and without any farther words, they set out, only to get a few yards before a high, insistent shout froze them.

"Senpai! Senpai, wait!"

Deidara's face fell into an irritated scowl, what _now?_

Tobi zoomed towards the pair, waving his arms rapidly, calling somewhat frantically, "Senpai!"

For an instant moment dread washed through him, had Tobi changed his mind? If he had, it wouldn't be impossible for him to tell Pain and cancel the mission, they hadn't left _yet_…

Deidara whipped around, scowl fixed to his face with a heated "what!?"

"Tobi has to give Senpai his goodbye hug!" Tobi squealed as he came closer.

Deidara blinked _his what?_

Before he could voice anything else a black and orange blur latched onto him in a tight, slightly suffocating embrace.

"T-tobi!" Deidara choked, more startled then angry, his chin pressing into a firm shoulder, his hands snapping up to grip the black material; while he was accustomed to these types of hugs and didn't _overly_ mind them; he already _had_ a good bye kiss!

Deidara caught sight of Kisame's raised eyebrow and squirmed, trying to get out of the vice like grip.

In a matter of moments the hug was over and Deidara blinked at being let go so easily.

"Be careful Senpai!" Tobi cooed, and Deidara caught the underline demand to it. "Bye Kisame-san!" Tobi squealed, earning a twitch from both. With one last wave the masked nin was gone, leaving a slightly stupefied shark nin and a twitching artist.

Deidara swung back around intent on walking again but a small noise from the mist nin stopped him, "what!? Un."

Kisame shook his head in a dismissive manner but the narrowing of the blue orbs had him complying, "it's just…" Kisame paused, looking skyward, "I've never seen you so tolerant of Tobi before."

Deidara frowned, his eyebrow rising, "what do you mean?" He didn't act differently around Tobi, not when around anyone else, so why would Kisame say that? If he _did_ act differently, Tobi would have said something.

Kisame ran a blue skinned hand through his stylish hair, "Tobi's rather predictable when it comes to you, usually when he jumped you and refused to let go, you rave and threaten. But now, it's like you don't… _mind._"

Deidara's mouth fell open as he stared at the taller male, surprised. So he didn't threaten to bomb Tobi into oblivion just know, how did that come off as him becoming tolerant of Tobi? Let alone not minding the constant hugs?

Deidara moved his mouth intent on telling Kisame how absurd his notion was but instead started walking snapping a dismissive, "whatever, un."

~88

"It's all just… so sad at points yet completely ridiculous. But for some reason it's addictive. And I just _have_ to watch it…" Kisame ranted to a seriously annoyed and fed up blond as they walked quickly; they had started off at a jog and gradually descended to a fast pace walk. They would pick up the pace before returning to the fast walking.

Deidara gritted his teeth in agitation, Kisame had started talking about his stupid day time drama show after he'd found the silence to compressing. He had told the shark nin to 'shut up' but the other had retaliated with Dei having nothing better to talk about, otherwise he would have talked about it. And even when he had pointed out snippily that the silence was better than listening about what happened in the latest series of episodes Kisame had seen, Kisame had shoved back with a 'deal with it kid'. While Kisame's last response was lame Deidara had nevertheless fallen silent. He had put up with Tobi for _years_, he could certainly put up with Kisame's rapid talk on day time drama.

Close to five and a half days had passed since they set out, the trees were thinning and more and more rocks were popping up. Deidara knew that they were going in the right direction and were getting closer. The prospect of _seeing_ the rock village again after all these years was… exciting. He may not have cared for the inhabitants but he loved the mountains, and he missed not being surround, enclosed in the rocks natural defense. He wouldn't have thought he would actually be looking forward to seeing the village, nor thought he'd be feeling the slight sting of nostalgia. A part of him was sure it would flare a bit when he actually set eyes on the rock structure.

His fingers twitched with need… _want._ When he had left, all those years ago he had left a parting gift, he would be sure to do so again. A light manic grin formed and he almost missed the sudden abrupt stop of the shark nin.

A frown replaced the slightly crazed grin as he turned to Kisame; his beady eyes were fixed intently in front of him. With a raised eyebrow, Deidara turned to see what had snagged Kisame's attention, there several lengths away stood three people, and the tallest of the three was carrying a short, old person.

Deidara felt his breath leave him as he froze inwardly. He hadn't anticipated running into _him_ of all people outside the village. Ranked nins, sure but _him?_ How in the world had he _not_ noticed!? Better yet, what was he doing outside the village?

Kisame gave a side glance at the frozen blond, his right hand reaching up to grasp his sword, shark skin, pulling it in front of him. With his beady eyes back to the three nins he stated, "I'll take the two ranked nins."

The words brought Deidara out of his shocked state and he nodded stiffly. Good, he'd rather take the old bat alone.

Kisame strode a few paces forward, watching as the only female jolted, her hands springing up to defend, while the chubby male lowered the elderly male onto his feet.

The female snorted, "Huh! You _really_ think _you_ can take the two of us?" Remarking to the words the blue skinned male had muttered.

Kisame snorted in derision "I don't _think_, I know!" his tone smug.

She frowned, while she w_anted _to show him otherwise… her black eyes shifted past him to the stationary blond, she much rather fight _him!_

Before the unnamed female could voice anything, the elderly male brought attention to him. Despite his faith in his two companions, this was an Akatsuki nin and not to be taken lightly. "I was not expecting to run into you." His eyes narrowed in thought, "word has it that you died." His old eyes roved over the familiar face, the blond hair. Obviously the rumor that Deidara had died had been false, for the artist was most assuredly before him, alive.

Deidara scoffed, _gee thanks, old man._ It irritated him that anyone, let alone this old gnome would believe that he had died against Sasuke. That that brat of an Uchiha would have had _any_ hand in his death rankled him. As he was sure that's what he was referring to, he vaguely remembered Konan telling him that the world would think he died during that fight. Granted that _had_ been his intention and the rumor would have been true if Tobi hadn't intervened. Distantly Deidara realized he s_till_ didn't know how the masked nin saved him… perhaps his teleportation? That sounded plausible.

His musing derailed when the old gnome strode forward a few paces, ignoring the two jolts from his two companions. How Deidara survived or what happened was of no interest to him, no, he'd just rectify that right here, right now.

The black haired female frowned, suspecting his intentions, shifting part of her attention onto the old man, "Sensei why can't you take the mist nin?"

She received a sharp glare, "Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, you _will_ take the mist nin." The blue skinned male had made it clear that he would fight them; they would have their hands full. Besides he had no problem with taking Deidara alone. _He_ didn't need any help, he was more experienced and was the one to train the boy, he roughly knew what to expect. He doubted the blond had changed much, he was far to obsessed with his art, that was all he needed to concentrate on.

Both newly named rock nins deflated a little but nodded in acceptance.

Deidara smirked at the exchange, but not sparing so much as a brief glance to his old teammates.

Kurotsuchi glared at the blond, her hands coming to rest on her hips, she had a _lot_ of things she wanted to say to Deidara… most importantly she _wanted_ to know why he left. Sure she knew that he was treated horribly, and she and Akatsuchi often ignored him but they hadn't been _cruel _to him, no they had been nicer then anyone, even the Tsuchikage. She knew before he had taken Deidara as a student he had ignored what happened. Well even when he started teaching them. She could understand _why _Deidara would be furious at the old man; he had done _nothing_ to stop the cruel words or mistreatment, but what about her and Akatsuchi? Had they not meant anything to Deidara?

"What? Not even a 'hello' for your old team?" She snarled to the silent blond, who couldn't even be decent enough to look at them for more than an instant moment. What were they? Chopped liver?

Deidara's blue eyes darted to her for a moment, his face graced with an unreadable frown before focusing back onto Onoki.

"I have nothing to say to either of you, hmm." Deidara uttered, his hands snaking into his gray clay bags. He meant what he said, his former _team_, while they had treated him more like a person after they became a team they still hadn't accepted him. There were times he caught the disgust in their eyes. So long as he carried mouths in places that were uncommon he would never be viewed normal. Kurotsuchi had been prone to grabbing him by the arm and dragging him off… but she would never grab his hand if there was no glove, she'd look uneasy, yet try to act like it didn't bother her. That alone told him, that he would never be seen in a better light, they would never get past the disgust for his hand mouths. And even if they did, their first initial reaction was beyond repair. They were just like the rest of the village.

Kurotsuchi growled but before she could voice anything else, she jerked back as the mist nin sliced at her with his wrapped sword.

"I think we've done enough chatting." Kisame stated, and shot forward. He would keep these two occupied, and ultimately kill them, letting Deidara have his chance to fight the leader of his former village. Should Dei have any trouble then he'd step in and help.

Onoki nodded sagely, "agreed."

Kurotsuchi scoffed and Akatsuchi sent a worried look to the short figure and parted with, "be careful." No matter how strong or experienced Onoki is his bad back and hips affected him constantly, because of his very old age. But he refused to retire… And he knew that Deidara would not be taking this fight lightly, and he would not be easy to beat. He was sure that the blond wasn't strong enough – capable enough but _anything_ could happen, which is why he worried.

The elderly male heard the concerned words but didn't acknowledge them, his entire attention on his former student, while he would never admit to anyone, especially outside of his village that he had trained Deidara, in his mind it was somewhat acceptable especially when this was going to be the end.

As the elderly leader of the rock faced off against the bomb, art obsessed Akatsuki nin, Kisame led Deidara's former teammates a good fair distance away, so that the fights couldn't', wouldn't impede each other. That and so he didn't have to worry about stray bombs and neither would Deidara, the blond wouldn't have to focus on making sure he was out of the way… at least assuming he would… facing off against the man who had been a part of his cruel upbringing and holding a lie for years was bound to make any outside concern void.

Both Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi caught on but they knew it was better to be out of the way so did not care. Besides, Kurotsuchi thought with a mischievous, smug grin, it would not take long to beat this mist nin, not when it was two against one. She met Akatsuchi's eyes with a bright, winning grin and they both focused fully onto their opponent. They would still be cautious, of course, after all he was still a missing nin and an Akatsuki, neither one of them would be wise to forget that.

As Kisame's fight commenced Deidara stared with burning eyes at the old gnome. Repressed hatred surged, just by staring at the short figure, he wanted to annihilate him!

_Calm down!_ Deidara chided himself. It would not do to let his emotions get the better of him. Besides, he _had _promised Tobi to be careful. He could not afford to be careless against Onoki, he had dangerous, almost frightening attacks, but what he _really_ needed to worry about was his dust release. He had never had the fortune to witness this devastating attack but he _knew_ what it could do and he knew that if he was hit with it, he would be killed. There was no way to survive being pulverized into molecular-sized dust, at least that _he_ knew of… but maybe Tobi could survive it, he did after all have the ability to teleport. Still… he'd heard during his days in rock that the Tsuchikage's dust release could _even_ destroy an entire island. Yes, he would be sure to avoid that technique at all costs, but how best to proceed? The old gnome _knew_ about his clay bombs, not _everything_ of course. He'd after all come up with new and stronger and different attacks since they last saw each other. But his main theme was bombs and Onoki knew that…

Deidara roved his sharp, intent blue gaze over the short figure of the stubborn old man. The colorful tunic was roughly the same since he'd last seen the old bat, his nose was still 'big' and pink… And he looked even older… Deidara perked up, older… that was it! He knew that taijutsu was _not_ Onoki's forte… but thanks to Tobi's forced training in taijutsu, he had improved. Mixing in taijutsu with his bombs was a good idea. Especially since the old bat did possess speed and the ability to fly, which also meant he would not have the advantage in the sky… Trying to keep Onoki on the ground may prove to be… hard, but not impossible. And Onoki would not be expecting him to be able or decent at taijutsu.

A smirk formed, despite how unexpected this fight is, he couldn't deny that he was burning with excitement, this would be quite the challenge. And he had a newly developed attack that in away could compare to Onoki's… well kind of new…

Hmm… he liked the idea, that attack would be a fitting end…

Deidara glanced down at his hands for a single moment as he morphed his clay, and asked almost blandly, yet with heat, "I just have _one_ question before we start hmm." He ignored the quirk of the old bat's eyebrow, "why was I in rock, if I wasn't born there?"

If Deidara hadn't been studying the old face so intently he would have missed it, Onoki's eyes had widened ever so, his eyebrows twitching a tad.

"Humph!" Onoki snorted, "What makes you say that you weren't?"

Deidara's eyes narrowed sharply but his smirk remained in place. He had learned that he was related to the fourth, there is no way he was born in rock. So how had he ended up there? Obviously the old gnome wasn't going to give on that one, oh well he didn't _really_ care. What he did care about was why his parentage had been kept from him, why had Onoki seen fit to never tell him? Granted he could guess and it did sound plausible (N/A – remember that he states in his fight against Yamato) … Deidara shook his head, scratch that… what he truly wanted to know was why Onoki had lied to him all those years and if his hand mouths were the sole cause of his mistreatment. Was it possible that he was mistreated so badly because he wasn't _really _apart of rock? Granted he was sure his hands mouths at least took some part.

He eyed the old face, he _knew_ how obstinate he was… it didn't matter if he didn't get anything out of Onoki, he was still going to the rock village and seeing that document. And by facing him here, Onoki _wouldn't_ be in the village and wouldn't be able to help defend it. Deidara shifted his stance a little, leaning forward a bit and flung his finished clay at the old fart, making the necessary hand sign to make them grow. The several birds zoomed at quite the speed due to their thin wings.

Onoki simply stood there, his face impassive.

Deidara pressed two fingers together and uttered, "Katsu!" A good size explosion erupted from the clay birds, engulfing the short figure of the Tsuchikage. Deidara frowned; there was no way that he had killed the gnome so easily. His blue orbs stayed fixatedly on the thinning smoke, as it dispersed, instead of seeing bloody body pieces, (like he was hoping to see) he only saw dirt. Scowling Deidara darted his blue orbs around the area, trying to figure out where the old fart was and what attack would be coming at him.

His heart pumped loudly in his ears, his muscles were stiff from nervous strain yet also excitement. He had never _quite_ felt this way in a fight before. But he had never faced such an experienced/skilled person, let alone someone he really, _truly _wanted to bomb into oblivion. To see his face as he realized he was about to explode, to see the sheer deafening explosion moments later, blowing apart the small body. Deidara grinned manically at the mere thought. He couldn't _wait!_

His small momentary lapse in attention costed him, Onoki slammed into his left side, sending him off balance and loosing air. Before he could regain his footing and retaliate, a fist made of rock slammed into the side of his face and sent him careening backwards with a spin. He tried to level out so that he could land on his feet but the force of the hit prevented him and he slammed into the unrelenting dirt covered earth.

Fuck! Deidara groaned, his breath huffing into the dirt, as he struggled to his feet. He had forgotten that Onoki almost always wrapped rocks around his arms to enforce his punches. Lucky for him, he had only covered one arm in rocks.

Still, it was strange that he hadn't used his dust release; if he had Onoki would have killed him, quickly putting an end to the fight. Staggering to his feet, he wobbled for a moment, inwardly cursing at how much damage that one blasted hit did, no matter he just needed a moment to shake it off. After all he'd been through worse. His eyes alighted onto the stationary form, why was he just standing there? It was unlike the old fart to waste in smashing someone. He derailed the thought and quickly shot his hands into his clay pouches on his hips, pulling them out as soon as his hand mouths were filled. With narrowed eyes he shifted a few paces towards the old gnome.

"Humph!" Onoki scoffed, at Deidara's raised eyebrow he added, "It's not like you to _not_ sneak away and attack from a distance." Perhaps the blond was still planning to do that, the fight _had_ just started but he was sure that the artist would have done it from the start. Had he actually changed his fighting strategy? It would be quite a surprise if he had, he had always hated Deidara's tendency to sneak off onto a bird and attack from a distance.

Deidara scoffed, "I thought you said we had done enough chatting?" Deidara shook his head lightly, resisting the urge to bring his hands up to knead the sides of his forehead, that hit had left him with a pounding headache.

Onoki's eyebrow twitched at the others sass. A part of him _really_ wanted to lecture Deidara on his choice, he may not have had the best life in rock but loyalty to ones village was important, no matter what. How could Deidara put himself over the village? But lecturing him now, hearing what he had to say didn't matter, it wouldn't change anything. So instead he swiftly slammed his covered hand into the ground, creating a long stretch of splitting ground, charging straight for the still blond.

Deidara propelled to the side, and having anticipated Onoki appearing in front of him, veered to the left, just barely missing the kick to his stomach and quickly touched down, skidding a little on the dirt before pushing off and aiming a punch at the old face, reveling in the light surprise that traveled across Onoki's face. The old gnome was _clearly _startled that he was using taijutsu. Unfortunately his punch did not connect to the old geezer's face, since Onoki blocked with his rock covered arm, a jolt of pain, kind of like the sensation of knifes traveled up his arm. "Tch'ing" Deidara jerked back and flung up his other arm, sending a swarm of small insects at the other's face. Quickly he formed his seal snapping, "Katsu!"

A small explosion covered the small figure. But Deidara didn't have time to marvel his detonation as Onoki darted out of the smoke, his clothes a little singed but otherwise unharmed.

Growling Deidara pulled out a couple kuni, one for each hand and shot forward. He wasn't very fond of using weapons, mostly because it felt odd in his mouthed hands. A quick succession followed, Onoki pressing his speed, a speed Deidara did not have unless on one of his birds. Giving another sharp growl Deidara allowed the old bat to connect his un-rock covered arm to make contact with his shoulder and quickly, jerkily swung his other arm at the offending limb, succeeding in cutting through the material that covered the arm and leaving a thin red mark. However before he could do more damage he was sent careening by a solid punch to the face, another spin and he collided with the hard unrelenting earth again.

Grunting Deidara blurrily opened his eyes, insistently ignoring the throbbing of his head, which seemed to have increased from that last hit, and ignoring the thin stream of blood that trickled from his forehead. Quickly he shook the weak feeling off and narrowly back flipped away from a speedy rock punch, the earth caved in from the force and Deidara was seriously glad to have avoided that hit.

Panting lightly, Deidara snaked his empty hand mouth into his clay pouch, quickly sucking up more clay. Inwardly he cursed, he had hoped that he would have a little advantage on the ground using taijutsu but Onoki's speed, while not as fast on the ground was proving to outmatch him.

_Fine then,_ Deidara scoffed heatedly, inwardly, he would just have to take this to the sky.

Onoki shot forward, not intending to allow the artist much time to think or recover. He was sure that Deidara's plan involved in getting into the air. He couldn't quite believe that he would take that option away completely. It seemed more like he had actually taken the time to learn taijutsu and he _wasn't_ bad but it wasn't refined, and he wasn't particularly speedy. Now that using taijutsu seemed ineffective he was sure that the blond would try to get into the air. But he would much prefer to keep the artist on the ground. He was much less prone to use a devastating bomb while stuck on the ground… his eye slowly gazed over the small, insignificant cut for an instant moment. Even with using Taijutsu he wouldn't have thought that Deidara would manage to injure him… even if it was by pure luck.

Onoki shook off his musing as he continuously punched at the blond, forcing the other backwards and not giving the artist enough time to perform a jutsu.

Irritated Deidara sunk his left foot into the earth and surged forward, knocking the old bat off guard for an instant moment.

Onoki jerked back, out of the way as his back protested, giving Deidara that small moment he needed to form an owl bird. Smirking now, Deidara hopped onto his grown bird and quickly shot into the air. Deidara took a second to regain his breath as he eyed the small form that looked like a black dot. Just as he expected a moment later the old bat was using his ability to fly, without the aid of a clay bird and came to a stop across from him.

Onoki scoffed, "I knew you'd pull this."

Deidara glared, but hardly cared for the old bats words. He felt more comfortable in the air. "Shut up old man!"

Deidara frowned contemplatively, as his hands disappeared into his clay bags, which bomb was best to use. He had to be careful he only had so much clay. He could use his C4 bomb, the one he'd used against the Kazekage but… His eye drifted briefly to Kisame's fight. If he used it now, right here, Kisame would be in range.

His senses flared and he jerked his bird to the left, narrowly avoiding several rocks. His attention riveted back onto the old gnome, who was still across from him but closer. Not wasting another moment Deidara swerved his bird around and flew away, trying to make as much distance away from Kisame as possible so that he could use his bombs without worrying he would be hit. While normally he wouldn't bother (unless it was Tobi), he was sure Tobi would not be pleased if he killed Kisame, even if it was unintentionally. Tobi sent Kisame along to help not so he'd inadvertently blow him up.

Deidara jerked a little and settled his gaze to the side; _the old bat's even faster than last time!_ He would have thought he'd be slower as Onoki got older. Damn! He was already going as fast as possible! Onoki matched him!

Onoki's eyes narrowed, deciding to take things up a notch. To be honest he _should _have been going all out from the start. Perhaps even forming rock clones… but a part of him had been curious about how well Deidara had improved. But now that the blond was in the air, where he could drop devastating bombs which could hit Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, on the ground he would have to prevent. Still feeling mildly annoyed that even after all these years Deidara _still_ resorted to sneaking off, quickly shot forward with a burst of speed hitting the back off the clay bird. It dipped from the force, knocking Deidara off balance.

Onoki quickly brought his hands together and a clear rectangle formed a small white ball in the middle.

Deidara felt his breath hitch, and despite never actually _seeing_ it before instantly knew what attack that was. The dust release!

Well, it looked like the old fart was done messing around. With narrowed eyes, Deidara swung his left hand up, quickly flinging another clay bird.

Onoki sprung forward as soon as the rectangle was enlarged.

Deidara seeing the incoming death kill, flung off the side of his bird.

Onoki's eyes narrowed in anger as the blond narrowly avoided the attack, unlike his clay bird that was instantly destroyed.

As Deidara dropped through the air, his bang hitting his face irritatingly, leaving the feeling of something small and pointy hitting his skin due to the speed he was falling at, quickly had his bird grow and safely landed on it, it swooped down, kicking up dust as it flew over the ground and back up high into the sky.

Deidara released a heavy breath that was too close for comfort. While he had never minded dying he would rather go out by his own means, and particularly by his own bomb. And he would be damned to die by the old fart!

But it was quickly becoming obvious that he may not be able to kill Onoki. He matched his speed in the air and he didn't have any advantage on the ground. Sure he'd had one single moment of surprise when he'd shown he could perform taijutsu but that was it. All that training with Tobi still proved ineffective!

Grunting Deidara quickly tried to come up with a way to kill Onoki. Even if he used his C4, Onoki would most likely create rock defenses… could even possibly stop his bomb with his dust release…

Damn it! How was he supposed to kill the old bat!

Because he was frantically musing to himself he was unprepared for the hit to his bird, it sent him twirling through the air, his hair whipped around, mostly hitting his face and blocking his view. He struggled to right himself, pushing down on his bird, hoping to level out. A few feet from the ground he was able to steady himself. Unfortunately just as he went to settle his gaze on the blasted old man another powerful rock punch to his side sent him careening off his bird and colliding with the ground.

Fuck! Deidara growled inwardly as he pried his face from the dirt ground, what was wrong with him! He _shouldn't_ be doing this terrible!

It was just like his fight with Sasuke! He'd let his emotions get the better of him and….

Deidara blinked, his mouth parted a little, hold on.

His fight with Sasuke…

Th-that _could _work!

A light smirk formed, as he slowly looked down to make sure his right hand still had clay, his left was empty. There was still clay, good. Instead of forming his C4 like planned he formed his clay into tiny insects. To another's perspective, it looked like he was simply recovering from the previous blow. Deidara hoped Onoki didn't read too much into it and waited. He closed his eyes, relying on his awareness, his senses to alert him. A few moments ticked before he felt a familiar clawing sensation and he discreetly sent a number of insects onto the ground and then shot up, backing away from the rock punch that connected where he had just been sitting. By know he had learned that Onoki was prone to attacking with a powerful rock fist.

He stopped just outside the crater, ready to perform his explosion but waited as Onoki stood in his newly created crater, a small frown etched onto his old features. Unfortunately he waited too long and Onoki simply swatted the insects with a rock fist, sending then to the hard ground. The second they connected Deidara formed his seal, and a small, explosion erupted. The colors blending beautifully, kind of like the sunrise but quickly became gray.

The smoke cleared revealing an unharmed old man, and Deidara reframed from sighing, he hadn't expected those insects to actually harm the old fart. But this was getting simply ridiculous! His frustration leaking back, Deidara shoved his hands into his clay pouches, quickly scooping clay into his hungry mouths. He bent his knees, locking them, ready to spring as Onoki took a step towards him.

He blinked and in the small moment of doing so, Onoki was in his face, Deidara could see all the wrinkles that lined the old face. He tried to fling to the side but his body wasn't prepared and once again a rock covered fist met his face, knocking him backwards into the hard, rough ground.

Deidara lay there a bit stunned, his head pounding hard, like it was about to burst. He was _so_ sick of getting punched in the face by rock! A part of him was surprised his face hadn't split open or knocking him out.

Stiffly, Deidara pulled his hands out of his pouches, his hand mouths chewing frantically and struggled to rise. His body protesting, it would seem he'd taken one too many hits to the face. Upon standing, a dizzy feeling swept over him leaving him feeling light headed, his eyes blurred and he reframed from shaking his head in hopes of clearing his fuzzy vision. Doing so would no doubt increase the pounding of his head and the heavy pressure pressing in on his brain. Somewhat sluggishly Deidara raised his hand as his mouthed right hand spit out a blob of clay; he quickly formed another owl bird and flung it. Forming the necessary seal, the bird grew. Hopping onto his bird, blue eyes slowly, drifted over to the small form of Onoki.

"It looks like you're about done." Onoki observed.

Deidara felt a glare form as he uttered a tired scoff. He couldn't _remember_ the last time he'd felt this drained... oh right... there _was_ that fight with Sasuke..., though this time it wasn't chakra exhaustion.

His eyes roamed the small figure, before going right to the small cut and smirked, even if it was a tired one.

Onoki frowned deeply, wondering what the artist could _possibly_ be smirking at. Given his state...

Onoki's train of thought died as Deidara formed his all too familiar detonation seal, the only clay the blond had out was the bird he was standing on, which flapped a little above the ground, easily within jumping distance.

"What you're going to blow yourself up? Now that you know you can't win?" While that was common amongst ninja's, he had been planning on getting information. He couldn't very well do that if Deidara killed himself.

Deidara's smirk widened a little, "Don't be absurd old man. I thought you were far more intelligent than that." His blue gaze riveted to Onoki's arm with the thin cut. A bubbling feeling slowly started to rise, almost masking the tiredness he felt.

Onok's forehead creased, before following the artist's gaze, landing on his injured arm.

What?

His dark gaze widened slightly in shock and surprise, there on his arm laid a thin speck of clay. Surly this small amount wouldn't be enough to kill him, maybe loose his arm but not kill.

Onoki snorted in derision, "this small amount won't do much damage."

Deidara's smirk turned manically, "who says it's just _on_ your arm hmm?"

Onoki scowled lightly, trying to find the meaning behind the other's words. It took a few moments, but when it clicked his head snapped up to lock on a lightly tan face in disbelief. "That's not possible!"

Deidara inclined his head, "oh, it's not? You of all people shouldn't be quick to discount the possibility of something."

Onoki's eyes narrowed sharply, "when?"

Deidara was silent for a moment, the distant sound of fighting echoing in the far distance. "When I shot the insects at you, I also sent some on the ground." Those ones had been far smaller, almost micro and had worked their way onto Onoki as he stood still, a costly mistake for the old bat. The bugs had gotten _inside_ Onoki's body, through the thin cut on his arm and into his blood stream.

Onoki 'tch'ed gruffly at Deidara's smirking face, the artist thought he'd outsmarted him did he? While he could say he hadn't anticipated the blond being able or capable of doing something of this degree and he certainly was caught off guard didn't mean he was beat. But, that was certainly a dangerous ability. He didn't need to ask to know what would happen should the tiny bombs detonate inside of his body. He would blow up from the inside, not a pleasant way to go. And certainly a hard feat to get out of, but he wasn't the Kage of rock for nothing.

Quickly Onoki brought up his hands.

Deidara blinked, startled, a light frown slipping onto his face, "you _can't_ seriously still be planning to fight?" That was absurd! All he had to do was finish his seal and his bombs would explode. Onoki wouldn't have time to perform a jutsu that would impede him, or stop him. Maybe delay but it wouldn't take very long to activate his bombs unlike Onoki.

Just as Deidara went to detonate Onoki's snort of derision stopped him, why he was delaying he couldn't fathom. Perhaps a part of him was curious to see what the great military troll would try to do, Onoki certainly didn't seem to think that he was screwed.

Deidara watched as Onoki formed his dust release attack and he bent his knees, prepared to get out of range but instead of aiming it at him Onoki allowed small streams of dust to filter into the thin cut on his arm.

Deidara gaped, "what are you crazy!?" Doing that Onoki was basically killing himself!

The old troll raised a bushy white eyebrow, "I don't think _I'm _the crazy one." Yet keeping his focus on what he was doing.

Deidara's eyebrow twitched yet couldn't help but watch the scene in light fascination. He had expected Onoki to combust the moment the dust hit his skin yet that didn't happen. But he was sure that once the dust came into contact with a bomb, it would explode.

But as moments ticked by, the only sound was from the distant fighting from Kisame and Deidara felt his mouth drop as Onoki remained in one piece.

_How!? _Deidara thought in furious anger. How could the old bat not _die_ from having his dust release in his blood stream? It was impossible!

And yet Onoki remained fine...

"What the hell!" Deidara snapped with a growl, "How can you do that?"

Onoki snorted at the blond's furious tone, yet did not remove his gaze from his arm, but decided to oblige the artist, "I'm using such a small amount, just enough that it won't harm me. And I won't activate the jutsu until the dust comes in contact with the bombs. Then the dust will _only_ destroy them."

Deidara worked his mouth several times, rage washing through him, and he struggled to keep it from coming out. Getting worked up would not be ideal.

But damn it! It was just like his fight with Sasuke!

He snapped his blue eyes closed, and released a deep breath, calming himself to a light degree and quickly formed his seal. Onoki was still in the process of destroying the bombs, he should be able to still set them off and kill the old fart!

_Katsu!_ Deidara snapped inwardly, his eyes riveted to the small form intensely. Usually when he set off a bomb, it exploded immediately, yet... nothing happened, Onoki stood in one piece, perfectly fine. Deidara's shoulders sagged, damn that old fart! He'd clearly managed to stop all his bombs. Gah! If he had just detonated from the start Onoki would have died!

Fuck!

So caught up in his inner ranting Deidara failed to notice that Onoki was done, until he was roughly knocked from his bird and slammed into the hard ground on his back. Deidara's eyes went wide, Onoki had him pinned by rock and realized he was screwed. He couldn't move his hands to get any more clay and his rock jutsu's were no doubt incomparable to Onoki's...

Fuck! He hadn't even made it to the village... hadn't gotten to see that blasted document! For a single moment Deidara regretted not listening to Tobi.

His mind stilled for a second as his mind thought of Tobi, in a way this was like when he had been pinned by those cloud nin and almost rapped. A part of him half expected... _hoped_ that Tobi would show up and... Save him, despite the fact that it was infuriating to _need_ to be saved. But knew it was a hopeless thought, Tobi was not here this time, he didn't _know_ that he was in this mess. Damn it! He couldn't believe that Onoki had stopped his attack! It was simply devastating that all that effort to get clay into that thin cut had been all for nothing! Maybe he _should_ have just gone with C4…

Deidara shook his head as much as possible, now was not the time to be thinking of that. He settled his attention on the small form who surprisingly hadn't killed him yet.

Onoki's eyes roamed over the blonds' face, trying to see if the other had given up or was still planning to escape, not that Deidara would be able to. He felt the surge to lecture the artist again on his choice but... there were more important things to talk about.

"Tell me, who is the leader?"

Deidara barely blinked at the question, quelling the threatening scoff, well at least that answered his question of _why_ he hadn't been killed yet. Onoki wanted answers about the Akatsuki. And who wouldn't? Though the leaf knew... but it stood to good reason that the word hadn't spread in the wake of the leafs destruction.

If this had been even a year ago he _may_ have been compelled to tell Onoki, for he had no care for the organization that had forced him to join. But knew that despite that he doubted he would have ousted Pein. But while it was a maybe on Pein, Tobi was a definite no. He would _not _tell Onoki. Granted Pein was still the acting leader but Tobi was the one truly in charge, by spilling Pein's name he was hurting _Tobi's_ organization. And he couldn't do that.

A wide smirk engulfed his face, "how do you know it's not me un?"

Onoki's eyes narrowed in displeasure, "going to be stubborn, I see." While it was _possible_ that Deidara could have been the leader he knew it wasn't so. The Akatsuki had been around before the blond had defected.

"Fine, what is the Akatsuki's intentions?" Onoki demanded instead, not bothering to ask besides the capture of the tailed beasts. That was common knowledge at this point.

Deidara shifted his head a little, as much as he possibly could pinned down and all. The ground was digging into his throbbing skull and seriously starting to become infuriating. But no matter how much he shifted the pulsing throb remained. It was like having a bird peck at his head none stop…

"What do you mean?" Deidara asked tiredly, of _course_ he _knew_ what the old geezer meant… but he loved pushing the boundary and he was pretty confident that the old man wasn't going to kill him since he clearly wanted answers. Though… granted he could harm him… good thing he had a high pain tolerance.

Sure enough a vein bulged on Onok's forehead, signaling his thinning patience and the rise of his anger. And Onoki was _truly_ frightening when angry. Lucky for him he had kept composure during their fight… but unlucky that it was tearing now… Onoki's anger might push him to _kill _him. And he didn't want that.

"What do the Akatsuki hope to achieve? Why is it imperative to capture all the tailed beasts?" Onoki ground out through clenched teeth.

Deidara studied the reddening face with tired disinterest and dropped all false pretense, "and _why _should I tell you hmm?"

Onoki heaved a breath of air, steadying himself as he bore cold eyes into the pinned blond, "I guess you want to do this the hard way." If he couldn't get Deidara to just tell him then he'd have to force it out of him.

Deidara blinked albeit sluggishly and swallowed tightly as the meaning of the words hit. A bubbling surge of fear slowly formed in his chest, leaving a growing nauseas feeling. The prospect of being tortured was not appealing especially by the military troll. Rock was well known for their brutal ways, during the war even their training regiment was brutal, which was part of the reason he had such good pain tolerance.

Onoki took a step closer and Deidara irritatingly felt his face pale, Oh crap! He pushed what little energy he had into his arms, struggling to move them, to do _something!_ But alas they didn't budge an inch. Onoki towered over him, despite that Deidara kept his face void, refusing to show _any_ emotion, waiting. There wasn't anything else he could do seeing as he was stuck and unable to free himself.

As the arm of rock came down, Deidara stared unflinchingly but the expected attack never came. Deidara gaped not able to hold in his shocked surprise. There before him, intercepting the hit was shark skin, Kisame's bandaged sword.

Funny he had completely forgotten the mist nin in the ensuing finale of his fight. Though he certainly hadn't been expecting the shark nin to intervene, either way. Deidara's blue lone gaze slid to the side to take in the tall, broad form of the blue skinned male. He was uninjured, not so much as a scratch was visible and he had one big hand wrapped around the yellow hilt, the sword stretched entirely before him, a deep frown was settled on the scaly features and his beady eyes bore darkly into the small, slightly hunched form of Onoki.

Deidara recalled distant yells prior to being pinned, he had also dragged his fight out of sight of Kisame's and yet at the precise moment he needed intervention, Kisame provided it.

Onoki scowled something fierce his sole attention now on Kisame, his free hand twitched, now mildly concerned about his companions.

"I don't think anything you try is going to be productive." Kisame stated with certainty, referring to the several asked questions by the old man.

A white bushy eyebrow rose, "oh? You sound certain." Inwardly Onoki frowned, how long had Kisame been here? Within hearing distance? Prior to knocking Deidara off his bird he knew that Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi's fight was still going on… he strained his hearing, the sounds of fighting did not reach his ears…

The only logical conclusion then would be that Kisame had killed them. Why else would he be here? Anger rose, and his free hand clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white from the strain.

"What the hell! Kisame!" Deidara shouted, while he was grateful, Kisame _should _have been taking care of his old teammates. It had barely been a few minutes since he'd be pinned… well it was _possible_ that Kisame had wrapped things up…

Kisame glanced at Dei, but kept part of his attention on Onoki, "now, now Dei, is that any way to say thanks?"

Deidara scowled as he felt his face heat up and he gave a sharp irritated growl almost sounding like that of a pissed dog.

Kisame returned his gaze to the small form and thrusted his sword towards the other, knocking the rock covered arm off and propelled the old man back a few paces. Immediately after, he swung his sword into the upturned rocks that was incasing the blond several times, splintering and shattering the stones releasing the artist.

Deidara opened his eyes, having closed them to prevent dust and debris from entering his eyes and with mild difficulty sluggishly stood.

Kisame roved his beady eyes over the battered form, "leave him to me."

Deidara's head snapped over to the shark nin, his mouth parted in surprise and shock, "what? The hell! No way un! He's mine!" Deidara shouted, displeased.

"Your _exhausted_," Kisame calmly stressed. "Besides isn't the whole point of this mission so that you could go _see_ something?" Kisame pointed out, watching as Deidara closed his mouth, looking like he was going to actually listen to him. "You get going and get some _rest _while I handle him and I'll meet up with you."

Deidara frowned, wanting adamantly to ignore the mist nin's reasoning but staying to fight in his state was pointless and ultimately he'd just get in the way. And Kisame was right, the only reason they were together was to get to rock to see that document. So staying and fighting when Kisame had it covered was pointless and a waste of time.

But damn it! He wanted to kill Onoki! Argh! It infuriated him so much!

Deidara's furious thoughts were interrupted by Kisame musing tone, "Though I must say your plan was excellent. I never knew you could blow someone up from the inside."

Deidara blinked, staring at the back of Kisame's head, feeling a swell of pride rise at the compliment. Odd he never would have thought he'd feel pleased from getting a compliment that _wasn't_ from Tobi. But any compliment about his art was worthwhile.

Kisame glanced over his shoulder with a wide toothy smirk, "remind me to never piss you off again."

Deidara 'humphed' while crossing his arms before a devious smirk slid onto his tired face, "I could give you a demonstration."

"AH!" Kisame laughed loudly managing to utter in between, "No thanks, I'd rather live!"

Deidara strode a few paces away before a sudden thought struck him and he froze, "hey wait… how did you know what my plan was when you were out of sight fighting hmm?"

Kisame's laugher grew to a quiet chuckle before dying done all together, "before we started I created a water clone to deal with the two brats and tailed you."

Deidara's jaw dropped, he was watching my fight the whole time!

"T-the hell!" Deidara snapped indigently.

Kisame shrugged lightly, indifferently, "It wasn't like I didn't think you could handle yourself, you certainly can it was simply for incase, and considering how you were _pinned_ just a few moments ago I'd say it was a good thing."

Deidara's eyebrow twitched even as his shoulders sagged. Well at least the shark nin had only intervened when it was clear he needed help.

"Argh!" was Deidara's response; he sent a withering glare at the old bat before he quickly sucked up some clay and proceeded to form a bird. Since Kisame was staying behind to fight he saw no reason not to fly. Plus he'd get farther on his bird.

As Deidara hopped onto his clay owl Kisame settled his entire focus on the rock Kage and vaguely noticing the displeased and pissed expression shot forward. He knew _why_ Onoki hadn't tried anything in the few moments Dei and he had conversed; it was simply because he wouldn't have managed to get past his guard and at Dei. That and he was sure he was trying to figure out if his two companions were alive. Though he doubted the military troll was dwelling on that for long.

The sound of Kisame fighting the Kage of rock echoed up into the sky gradually becoming distant as he flew farther away, Deidara glanced over the side of his bird as a flash of blue caught his attention. There far below him was two water prism's and inside were his former teammates. Kisame's water clone stood in front of them. From this distance Deidara couldn't tell if they had drowned or not but didn't care in the slightest to find out. Deidara looked away back to the darkening sky and pushed more speed into his bird, the wind nipping at his skin feeling wonderful on his heated face. His focus now back onto that document.

~End Chap

I got the idea for Dei and Onoki to fight from seeing some comics from Deviant; I haven't actually seen the fight or read it. Originally this was supposed to take place around the moving Island but due to changes in chap 9 (and a scene with Kabuto taken out, I had to change it. This is why I didn't want Tobi to go or for them to teleport because I wanted to do this fight.

So originally I thought of Dei killing Onoki, (which was before I knew that Onoki would give Madara trouble) but then thought well Dei is far younger (and not as experienced)and I felt it would seem super powered and such. A little bummed I didn't kill him... I just think it would be so cool if Dei did. (I did look up information concerning Onoki and his attacks)

Posted: 07/06/2013


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

To anonymous reviewer Guest – Thanks very much for taking the time to review :) I appreciate it.

To DeiDei-Lover1996 (Since I couldn't do so personally) – Thanks so much for reviewing! Don't worry they will but not for a good while. Hopefully it's not a disappointment.

Ok first off – I hate the fillers for the site! It's so darn irritating! Why in the world did they change it!? I could care less about inputting four characters, argh! Now whenever I search I get stuff I don't want. Also I am still looking for a beta, so PM me if anyone is interested!

I know it's been forever, so I got this chap done and while not thoroughly satisfied I really don't want to mess with it anymore right now, plus it's been what four months… This update is for my 100 fav!

For all those who celebrate: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 20 – Devastation

Kisame smirked deviously as Onoki struggled, he had one hand firmly planted to his lower back and the other held out in front of him covered in rocks. It would seem that the old man's back was giving out, no surprise fighting Deidara and then him was bound to wear and tear the old geezers frail bones.

There was a loud shrieking yet upset shout in the direction of his clone and Kisame could only smirk wider.

Onoki angled his head slightly towards the noise yet Kisame couldn't tell what he was thinking due to the indifferent expression.

"If you _really_ care about them then I suggest you go help them." Kisame stated smugly, for if the old man did so, it would give him the chance to give Onoki the slip. "What's more important? Them? Or me?" Granted considering who he was taking too he knew the military troll would pick him.

Onoki grunted, his eyes darkening as he leveled a withering stare onto the mist nin. All of him was as always telling him that capturing the Akatsuki nin was more important, getting _any_ kind of information was imperative and yet... Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi were his _students._ He had known from the start that they would have difficulty against the mist nin and they weren't out of the way to go help. But by doing so he risked Kisame escaping and while he _could_ attempt to track him and ultimately running into Deidara as well they were on their way to a _very_ important meeting. Though it would have been even better to show up with a captured Akatsuki nin...

Onoki blinked as he realized he'd already made his decision with that last thought. In a way it was the better choice his bones were giving out and prolonging the fight was bound to end with the mist nin escaping any way the only difference being that his students would be _dead_.

He shot a withering almost loathing glare at the stationary nin before shooting towards his two students with a boost of speed, easily leaving a mildly surprised shark nin in the dust.

"Well, I'll be..." Kisame uttered distantly, his beady gaze staring at the empty place the rock Kage had just been standing hunched over in pain from his back. It was a shame though... he would have liked to shred Onoki to ribbons... He shook his head and didn't dwell on it a moment longer, using this chance to get the hell out of here. Hopefully he could catch up with Dei _before_ he got to the rock village. He was pretty sure that Dei wouldn't wait for him and the whole point in him accompanying the blond was to help in getting in and out of the village, he certainly couldn't do that if Dei started without him.

Kisame sighed heavily and pressed forward with more speed.

~88

Kurotsuchi hacked and coughed, trying to regain her breathing after the vicious blow to her windpipe. She had just barely managed to get free of the water prism, in the process releasing Akatsuchi but as they recovered the mist nin sent a devastating hit to Akatsuchi, with a gurgling noise he'd collapsed leaving blood in its wake. With a shrill echoing shout she had sprung forward, unfortunately her rage had affected her thinking and she was sent to the hard, unforgiving ground by the vicious hit to her windpipe.

The mist nin had a beastly grin as he strode forward, his sword raised with the intention to gut her and therefore killing her when a strong gust of wind struck, followed by a thumping noise which sent the mist nin backwards before dissolving into a puddle of water.

Her dark eyes met her teachers as she tried to recover, startled shock plainly visible. She was grateful and yet her mind simply focused on whether or not Onoki had killed Deidara.

She struggled into a sitting position, her arms shaking as she pushed off the ground, "w-wh..." She broke off by a rough cough her lungs on fire; she shook her head rapidly mildly hoping it would help still the horrid noise.

Onoki spoke as soon as the coughing fit subsided, "they got away."

Kurotsuchi's eyes snapped open, having closed them due to the coughing and gapped, "S-sensei!?" She didn't wait for a response as she snapped an arm out in a swift motion, "then we should go after them!" her throat protested and she winced. They couldn't waste this opportunity!

Onoki however shook his head, "no, we have a meeting we _have_ to get to." He turned at the strangled noise of protest, meeting unbelievable dark eyes, "or have you forgotten?"

Kurotsuchi felt her fingers flex, her eyes dropping from the stern gaze, "no, I haven't" she stated quietly, reservedly.

"Good. Because we can't _not _show up." Onoki informed, striding towards the fallen form of Akatsuchi, stopping besides the still form a heavy sigh left him as his eyes closed.

Kurotsuchi rubbed her eyes with her shredded red sleeve before dropping to her neck to wipe the drying blood, despite it leaving an itching feeling behind. "I-is he...?" she trialed off, afraid to know.

"Let's go." was Onoki's only words.

Kurotsuchi scowled but shakily stood, obediently. She gazed up at the dark sky, a light wind ruffling her short black hair, reminding her of days long past,_ Akatsuchi..._

~88

Kisame peered at the interesting sight before turning to face the silent blond. He had managed to catch up to Deidara while he was resting. He was quite surprised that the artist had _actually _taken the time to do so. He knew how anxious Deidara was in getting to rock, especially after their run in with Onoki. But he supposed even Deidara knew when to be reckless and when not to. Despite Onoki not being in the village didn't mean that it would be easy getting in or out. And Dei had not been in the best of state after his fight. It would have been practically suicide to charge in without taking some time to recover.

"So," Kisame broke the veil of silence that had stretched up after the massive structure that was the rock village came into view. "How are we going to do this?"

Deidara blinked, the sound of Kisame's rough voice bringing him out of his thoughts and stilling the sting of nostalgia. Vaguely he wondered how much nostalgia he'd feel once _inside_ the village.

"Well..." Deidara trailed off with a furrowed brow, he hadn't _actually_ thought of a plan to get in prior to getting here. Which would have been the smart thing to do but not usually how he did things... "I was thinking, maybe send you to cause a commotion, keep as much ninja's (and civilians) occupied while I sneak in Onoki's office and see the document."

Kisame stared at the shorter male blankly for a few moments before heaving heavily, "Wouldn't it be a better idea to sneak in entirely? It would be better if we got in without drawing attention to ourselves."

Deidara snorted, crossing his arms, "I seriously _doubt_ we'd manage to get in and out without being spotted. While we could henge and pose as ninja's or even civilians of the village that would take more work and effort hmm. It'll be easier and simpler to have you attack and I sneak in." Deidara glanced up at the shark nin, noting the furrowed brow and the slow start of a continued protest no doubt and added, "besides, I thought the main reason you came, (not putting up a fight in coming) was to fight? Surely that small brief fight from the other day wasn't enough?"

Kisame's mouth closed with a thin line.

Deidara shuffled a few paces closer; his head dipped to the side, causing his bang to drop away from his face to dangle in the air, "aren't you just _itching_ to shred people up?" He couldn't fathom why Kisame was against his plan. Was he simply not in the killing mood? Something he could not believe to be so. Then perhaps he just felt a swift silent move would be better? They _were_ after all going into one of the five hidden villages. And Rock was known for its natural defense.

Deidara tore his imploring gaze from the silent mist nin to gaze over the massive structure, he just didn't think things would go that smoothly if they simply snuck in. Besides he _wanted_ to leave a parting gift.

Kisame sighed, bringing Deidara out of his musing, "fine. You're right, I am itching to shred." A slow shark like grin etched onto his face as he finished speaking.

Deidara straightened, "great! Hmm." Grateful that he didn't have to try to convince the former mist nin farther.

Kisame turned, his back facing the blond, "I guess no time like the present." He muttered already heading towards the village.

Deidara opened his mouth, intent on stopping the nin but figured that starting right now would be best. No sense in delaying, so he snapped his mouth shut and snaked his mouthed hands into his clay bags, quickly scooping up clay. As soon as his mouths spit the blob of clay out he swiftly formed several medium sized birds with four thin wings. Activating the necessary seal, they came to life (as alive as they can) and sent them into the heart of the village; each one of them would go to the outer edge of the village and detonate at a properly ideal time.

That done Deidara formed an owl bird and shot up high into the air, while he knew that there would be ninja watching the sky, he hoped as most people tended to do was mistake his bird for an actual bird. He was a little uneasy seeing as the people; the _ninja's _of this village had _seen_ his clay creations before, but seeing as how he w_as_ seen as _dead_ by the world, it should be over looked. After all no one else possessed his ability so if the village believed him to be dead and he was sure they did since Onoki had, they wouldn't see his bird as a clay creation of his and see it as not a threat just a bird.

The village sits among a mountain range consisting of small narrow waterfalls, with the buildings being composed of rock and stone; shaped from large, elevated formations of rock into tower-like structures. Many of rock's buildings sit on cliffs connected by a network of bridges. But the only building Deidara was interested in was the tallest structure that had a cone shaped roof. That was where Onoki dwelled as Kage, which should also contain the document. No one in their right mind would dare to rifle through Onoki's things – unless they were planning to become a missing nin or already one. But the inhabits of rock were insanely loyal, so much so that as soon as the Tsuchikage gives an order, the Iwa-nin do so without hesitation, even if it means death. The only mild exception would Be Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, but even they were like the rest.

Deidara glided as stealthily as possible to the small flow of water, getting a nice view of the village. His lone blue gaze surveying his former village with hate burning in his eyes, judging the best way to get to the cone shaped structure without any trouble.

He pulled back some, away from the village as an alarm sounded and Deidara knew Kisame had provided distraction. Now that most would be dealing with the attacking mist nin, he could _hopefully_, safely fly to the structure. He waited a few moments, watching as numerous ninja's bolted in the direction of the commotion, some snapping out orders, others yelling, trying to find out what was going on. One lone rock nin was dealing with the curious yet somewhat worried civilians, urging them to stay inside.

Seeing that no one was looking his way, all far too busy with their current task, shifted towards his desired building, moving at a steady pace, exactly like a bird. So that should anyone spot him, they'd have to do a double take to realize there was something off with the so called bird.

His heart thrummed loudly in his ears, the excitement and the possibility of getting caught had his blood flowing rapidly. He grinned widely, manically as he got closer. He scoffed in derision as he made it safely unnoticed to the Kage's building. He eased his bird to the highest window carved into the stone structure and carefully pressed his face to the slightly dusty glass. He glanced both ways, straining to see as far as possible inside, making sure that no one was in the room before slowly easing the window open, twitching lightly as it gave what sounded like a loud 'screech'. Obviously this window wasn't used very often.

Once fully open, Deidara glanced over his shoulder and seeing no one paying him attention (that he could tell) swiftly ducked through the window and entered the relatively big room. He left the window open so that he'd have a quick way out (and he wouldn't have to crash through glass). Also, leaving his owl bird to fly on his own, but near the building as it would be suspicious to have a stationary bird pressed up near the Tsuchikage's building.

Deidara's felt his smirk widen as he realized how lucky he was, he'd actually picked the exact window that lead into Onoki's office. His lone blue gaze landed on the brown, sturdy desk, lightly coated in papers.

'_Hmm, where was the best place to put a classified document? One that no one but the Tsuchikage should have access?'_

His gaze landed on a gray filing cabinet, no doubt his secretary would have access to that. Then perhaps locked in Onoki's desk? He surveyed the rest of the room, noting it still looked as bland as it did the last time he was in here. The wall's were bare, save for one simple picture, which he didn't look at close enough to determine what it was of. There were several somewhat comfortable looking chairs before the desk, colored brown, though if memory served they were hardly comfortable. The only brightly colored object in the room was the lone rug that covered a good portion of the stone floor, the chairs and desk positioned on it. It looked exactly as he remembered it...

Deidara walked cautiously towards the desk, while he knew Onoki wasn't in rock, didn't mean that there wasn't some kind of trap left for just in case. Granted Deidara was partially sure that there was no trap seeing as rock was known for the rock-hard attitude of its shinobi, for being overly loyal. But there was also the possibility that someone could attack the village while Onoki was gone, so a trap _could_ have been left.

He stopped a few paces from the desk, and raised his hands just in case and uttered softly, as quietly as possible, shattering the silence of the room, save for the distant shouts wafting up from outside, "release!" he waited a few seconds but nothing happened, at least he knew there wasn't a genjutsu in place, at least not one that could be easily undone.

Dropping his hands he continued his approach, swerving around the desk, he'd never been on this side, and quickly roved over the few drawers. Kneeling, he tentatively inched a hand to the very bottom drawer on the right and closed his hand around the cold, stone handle. He pulled only to be met with resistance, a scowl worked its way across his face, the blasted drawer was locked!

Well on the plus side, the drawer being locked could be a good thing; after all you wouldn't put a classified document in an unlocked drawer if you didn't want it to be read by anyone else. Distantly he hoped the blasted document was in one of these drawers, because if it wasn't the only other place he could think of it being would be in Onoki's sleeping quarters. And he _really _didn't want to gallivant around the building looking for said room.

He dipped his mouthed hand into his clay pouch, once done chewing he rolled the clay into a small ball, about the size of his pinky and pressed it into the key whole, a small part remained on the outside but that was no big deal. Standing, he shuffled a few paces away and uttered, "katsu!"

A light thud echoed, as it was a very small bomb and he bent back down, waving a hand through the small amount of smoke and once again grabbed hold of the handle. The drawer opened easily this time and he tilted his head a little as he was met with a yellow folder, the size of a notebook. Slowly he picked it up, noting it felt almost feather like, his throat tight his heart back to hammering in his chest, almost like it was going to shoot out.

_Was this...?_

Slowly, tentatively, Deidara griped the flap of the envelope and peeled it back, ducking a hand inside, he pulled out several sheets of paper. Nothing immediately stood out; a part of him had thought he'd just _know_ that these were the right papers, no matter how absurd the notion is. He focused on the words, trailing a few lines before lowering his arms with a heavy sigh. These papers were not the ones he was looking for. He should have known he wouldn't be that lucky. He stuffed the papers back inside and shoved the yellow envelope back inside the drawer, and closed it with a loud bang, not caring if someone heard.

A hand pressed against his forehead as his eyes closed, releasing another drawn out sigh. He _really _didn't want to try to find Onoki's chambers... he couldn't imagine _why_ the document would _even_ be in the Kage's sleeping quarters. Onoki spent the majority of his time in his office; it would make more sense to lock it somewhere _in_ the office.

Hmm..., perhaps...

Deidara's eyes opened to rest on the lightly cluttered desk. His arm dropped from his face as a thought occurred. The document he was looking for was classified... perhaps Onoki hid it in a secret compartment?

Deidara placed his hands on the lightly rough desk, slowly roaming his hands on the underside of the desk, his visible eye widening as his fingers bumped into a small circular bottom, so small that if he hadn't been looking for _something_ he would have missed it. Quickly, he pressed a finger over the bottom till a small 'click' resounded and a small latch opened on the underside of the desk. His heart sped up once again, echoing loudly in his ears and he quickly yanked the thin latch forward. There before him rested another yellow envelope, the same size as the last one.

_This should be it..._

Swallowing thickly, Deidara picked up the envelope with care; almost as if he was afraid the envelope would attack him. Opening it, he carefully slid the contents out; an official looking seal was the first thing that caught his eye, before gliding his eyes slowly across, soaking up the words.

_It was true..._

He really _was_ related to the fourth Hokage... It was nice to know for sure that Tobi and Pein _hadn't _been lying. Not that he had really believed that they were. They certainly wouldn't have let him come if it wasn't true.

But... there was no name of his mother...

Deidara couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. He quickly ignored the feeling and resumed scanning the paper, only to flip to the nest page when nothing worthwhile was stated. What he wanted to know was _why_ he was in rock.

Yet as he got to the last page, nothing of the sort was mentioned. The few pages just listed his relation to the fourth, his birthday and other important info along with keeping quiet about the untimely birth. Apparently whoever his mother was had gotten pregnant at an improper time and didn't want anyone to know. But it didn't say how he came to be in rock... perhaps he had a different mother then... Naruto, he was sure that's what the kids name was? He couldn't imagine something like that going over very well... After all it was near the ending of the war and Minato just becoming Hokage. It would be unbecoming if the _Hokage_ had been cheating...

Or maybe his parents simply didn't want him?

Deidara scowled fiercely, he could make up all kinds of assumptions but that's _all _they would be! He had hoped that the blasted document would have said! Angrily he shoved the papers back inside the desk, rubbing a hand over his face, flicking his bang aside as he did so. Then he swept his hands across the desk, throwing everything off in a fit of rage. The papers twirled in the air before slowly descending to the ground while a few other objects hit the floor with a solid thud.

_Damn it!_ He inwardly cursed, now he wished he'd gotten answers from the old fart!

He rested his mouthed hands firmly on the cluttered free desk with his eyes closed, his bang hanging loosely in the air due to the tilt of his head.

Well... at least he _knew_ that he was truly related to the fourth and... Naruto, and ultimately it didn't matter that he hadn't found out, he no longer lived in rock, no longer had anything to do with his ex-village. The fact was he _had_ grown up in rock and knowing _why_ wouldn't change that. And his parents, at least one of them was dead, so it wasn't like anything ever could have happened there, except the kid... Naruto was still alive...

If he had known before defecting from his village all those years ago... but that wasn't the case, and... he was fine with just _knowing _that he had a blood brother. But now he was a criminal and he, Naruto was a jinchuuriki, they simple weren't meant to be.

Sighing, Deidara slid his hands off and straightened, at least this trip wasn't a waste.

"You!"

The sound of a hissing shout, riddled with shock jolted him and he swung towards the door that due to his inner musings had failed to realize anyone entering. No doubt it was due to the noise he'd caused that had alerted someone... A random rock nin dressed in the customary red and brown flat jacket stood pointing a shaking finger due to his growing rage, in the doorway. Deidara swept his lone gaze over the face but didn't recognize him, he wasn't familiar yet the other clearly knew who _he_ was.

Not wasting any more time Deidara flung towards the open window (ha he knew leaving it open would come in handy!)And before the rock nin could attack, only managing to stumble forward, his mouth open threatening to shout a command. Deidara stalled a few seconds at the window, waiting for his bird to show up, but it wasn't enough time for the other nin to do anything. He hopped onto his bird and shot away and up towards the sky.

Deidara heaved a grateful sigh even though he was slightly disappointed that he didn't get to destroy the old fart's office. Ah well, he still had his bombs stationed around the village, ignoring the still ongoing fight from Kisame's commotion pressed his hands together with a gleeful "katsu!"

The following explosions were glorious. A loud rumbling sound tore through the village, echoing lightly due to the mountains before an enormous bang struck, his bombs detonating all at once. Wonderful colors formed, orange and some red like a sunrise before grey destroyed them. Screams slowly filtered up, growing louder as the explosions died down.

Deidara ginned manically all the while, as the smoke billowed, Deidara sucked up more clay, creating his C4. As his mouths chewed he positioned himself about the center of the village, which was near the cone shaped building, this would be big enough to destroy the old farts office.

He surveyed the damage with glee, the four outer walls of the village had collapsed, rock nins who had escaped unscathed were trying to get pinned and injured civilians and ninja's alike out while others shouted to find the source of the bombs.

But even if they caught sight of him, they wouldn't have much time to formulate much of a plan, sure throwing weapons at him was a fine idea but he could easily dodge those and they couldn't add an explosive tag to the end of the kuni for they risked harming people of the village... then again this _was_ the rock village, they probably _would_ throw explosives at him. Still he could avoid those as well. Besides it was a moot point, for in a matter of moments he'd be done creating his C4 and fireworks would flare again, but this time more massive and powerful.

As he prepared to drop the ghost like face clay bird, Deidara idly wondered if Kisame was out of range, he had no plausible way of alerting the former mist nin without alerting everyone else to. Peering down over his owl with a wide manic, gleeful gin dropped his C4. As it dropped, he enlarged it, it slowly took on more speed as it fell, unlike last time – the fight with the Kazekage, he waited till it was close to touching the buildings before detonating.

A few seconds after he detonated a still silence took place before his bomb erupted outwards with a thundering noise, a bright fiery color morphed, looking like actual fire before exploding. The explosion tore throw buildings like they were made of cheese and silenced screaming ninja's and civilians, leaving ash in its wake. Those farther away kept their bodies from dissolving but were left in numerous pieces. Grey smoke, like that from a chimney filtered up into the sky as the explosion died down.

A shocked silence settled over the rock village, those who had been fortunate to be out of range gaped at the billowing smoke, disbelief and mild horror etched on their faces.

Deidara flew backwards a little ways with a light cough as the smoke slammed over him, waving a hand to rid the irksome substance. He covered his mouth with a sleeve so that no more smoke would filter into his lungs and reduce him to an irritating coughing fit. Angling his head he strained to see through the remaining smoke, his bomb had been enormous so the smoke would take a while to dissolve, though he didn't _need_ to see to know that a massive crater had replaced the buildings.

"Dei!" A loud shout tore his attention away from his handy work, and he turned to find an _alive_ Kisame standing on a fallen building, his Akatsuki coat coated in dirt and little tears.

Deidara raised an inquiring eyebrow but Kisame, instead of replying waved a blue hand in a clear gesture – they needed to go.

Deidara glanced away his eyes slowly settling back onto the slowly thinning smoke, sighing lightly. He would have liked to see the full actual crater, oh well; he could see the end of it and it wasn't like he hadn't seen his past craters from his C4. But Kisame was right, it was time to leave, it wouldn't take long for the remaining ninja's to get into gear and he really didn't want to deal with them. That and he was running severely low on clay now, the use of his C4 had costed him almost all of it.

Deidara locked gazes with Kisame and nodded, signaling his agreement and that he was leaving. The shark nin offered a toothy grin and propelled away.

Deidara followed, leaving one last look to the once proud village, a satisfied smirk etched on his face.

~88

Deidara touched down once the village could no longer be seen; only the smoke from the explosion was still visible.

"Damn Dei," Kisame muttered, sounding awed, "but you could have blown be up to!" he snapped quite pissed, which was pretty rare for him as he was normally somewhat easy going. It took something profound to _really_ get him mad.

Deidara offered a sheepish look, "well I didn't." He placated.

Kisame's face darkened drastically and for a moment Deidara thought the shark nin was going to attack him but he didn't, only striding closer and –

'Smack!'

The not so unexpected hit jolted a mild "ow!" and a glare. It didn't help that the dull throb of pain in his head had flared up from the rather hard punch to his head. Great now his headache was going to be back with a vengeance! "That was un-called for hmm!" Deidara snapped rubbing a hand over the place Kisame had hit, a scowl fixed to his face, and trying not to wince from the throb of his temples.

Kisame scoffed, "was not! You deserve more than that!" He crossed his arms with a heated huff, eyeing Deidara's sour face, noticing the occasional wince but declined to probe about it. He knew it didn't come from his lone hit and it didn't take much to know that the artist was probably suffering a few injures due to the previous fights. Kisame turned his attention to their barren surroundings; it was bland, nothing of interest, other than the still visible smoke. He was quite impressed; he had never seen such a large scale attack from Dei, granted he's seen the aftermath but not the initial explosion. The kid sure had a hell of a knack for massive destruction.

He sighed loosely now feeling calm, the former mist nin returned his beady eyes to the rather quiet artist. "Well? Did you see what we came for?" Kisame surely hoped so, seeing as Dei had just demolished roughly _half_ the rock village he couldn't go back and look.

Deidara dropped his hand from the side of his forehead, where he had been kneading the skin trying to help lower the persistent throbbing with little success and crossed his arms, a smug grin replacing his scowl. "I did."

"Satisfied?" Kisame questioned. He knew full well that Pain wouldn't want this continued line of questioning to continue. Frankly it was bad enough that Deidara had learned the truth. If the artist was satisfied, he'd drop the subject and put it behind him. But he also knew that it wouldn't _really _be behind the blond so long as Naruto lived. For even if Dei shoved forward there was a good chance that Naruto wouldn't, if not for himself then for the leaf.

"Hmm," Deidara muttered slowly, "mostly."

Kisame's eyebrow shot upwards, "mostly?" he parroted. A frown formed, "is that enough?"

Deidara exhaled heavily, his eyes closing slowly, almost as if they were too heavy to stay open. Contemplating the others words deeply, a frown also etched onto his face replacing the smug grin.

_Was it enough?_

He had wanted to see the document personally, and while it hadn't contained anything of real importance – such as why he had been in rock, he had found out that he was indeed related to the fourth. And that was all that should matter. So while he _was _disappointed and bummed he couldn't complain.

His eyes opened to lock with Kisame's imploring gaze, "yeah."

Kisame searched the blonds face intently, almost creepily but found no hesitation in the reply and straightened, quite content with that reply, he hoped Pein was as satisfied as well.

Kisame nodded, dropping the subject, "nice parting gift." a feral grin forming, showing his razor sharp teeth.

The words had an instant reaction, the smug, pleased grin reformed and with sparkling azure eyes, like the sun glisterning off water Deidara stated, "It was."

Kisame nodded lightly, not blind to how Deidara loved getting compliments when concerning his art. He had, however hoped at a time to have Sasori do the same, to see that his form of art wasn't just loud noises, but Sasori would never view it as art nor praise Deidara in anyway. And while he couldn't say he understood that much about art he _could _appreciate Dei's abilities.

Speaking off… he turned his far off look onto the blond, "I never knew you could blow someone up from the inside." Repeating his words from earlier when he'd stepped in between Onoki and Dei. Such a thing though was truly intriguing if not a bit... scary, for lack of a better word. But to be able… to be _capable_ of such a feat was very impressive. He wondered how strong Deidara would be in a number of years… the kid was after all very young, he was bound to become stronger, his explosions more powerful and devastating. Pein was fortunate to stumble onto Deidara when he did; having the kid against them was _not_ an appealing concept.

Deidara blinked, replying blandly interrupting the mist nin's musings, "you never asked."

Kisame smirked briefly, "true." It wasn't common to talk about ones individual attacks unless you were partners. Knowing what your constant companion could do was ideal, and imperative. For not being privy to everything could cause a bad fall.

Kisame shook his head to dispel his thoughts, running a blue hand through his even bluer hair, "so I guess we should get going." He was mildly eager to get back to his drama shows and see what he missed. He had tried to bribe Kakuzu into taping for him but the greedy bastard had wanted for too much and was also heading out indefinitely with Hidan to collect more bounties. He didn't know why Pein needed vast more money but it kept the zombie pair occupied and Kakuzu happy. Unfortunately he couldn't ask Pein or Konan and no one else was using their current base… Ah well, there was such a thing as re-runs. A second later he recalled that he'd _have_ to wait even longer to get back to his show. The reason he had been late to meet up with Dei, was simply because Pein wanted him to head to Iron once this mission was completed.

"Hmm," Deidara uttered, "yeah," bringing the former mist nin back to the present. Deidara was quite anxious to see Tobi, even though Tobi had informed him that he had things to see to, what things he didn't know and now that his mission was over and done with he wanted to know.

~88

"Say," Kisame uttered, breaking the silence that had stayed with them for the last hour, both lost in their personal thoughts. They were roughly a day or so away from the base and Deidara silently felt the compelling feeling of his somewhat soft bed calling him. He was _dying_ to sleep on something comfortable, and couldn't be more grateful that they were almost there. Despite the fact that they had holed up at an Inn for a day to recover, but the beds there had been lumpy and not very soft, though not surprising considering how cheap it cost.

With a small shake of his head, he turned with a raised eyebrow, Kisame's voice sounded rather depressed. And it was slightly concerning seeing as he hadn't portrayed a hint of it since they started this mission, he'd just about forgotten that Kisame _was_ depressed.

"Yeah?" Deidara urged when the mist nin remained silent for over two minutes.

"How did you deal, when Sasori died?" Kisame questioned quietly, after forcing the words out.

Deidara's eyes shot wide and tripped with an inward curse, he hadn't been _expecting that._ Deidara closed his eyes wearily, running a hand over his face and into his hair, bumping his small pony tail. "I wasn't that upset." Deidara answered honestly, knowing Kisame was seeking some kind of way in dealing with Itachi's death. The problem was that Kisame and Itachi had been in a relationship, Sasori and he hadn't, nor had they been remotely close.

Kisame turned, befuddled, "but you were partners, sure you two weren't _together_ but I- and the others, always felt that someday you would be. When Sasori got over himself…" When he _allowed_ his emotions to process. "You're eating got worse…"

Deidara dropped his eyes to the lightly grassy field; the others _really_ thought Sasori and he were… _close?_ Where had their eyes been? Perhaps he was a really good actor, but when did Sasori come off as wanting _anything_ with him? They argued constantly, which dwindled when the abuse started, so how did they come to that conclusion? Deidara grunted it didn't overly matter… As for his eating… it had nothing to do with being depressed over Sasori, but it _was_ because of Sasori that he had gotten so bad about it. Sasori had been known for his complete lack of waiting and he was quite proud of getting missions done at a good time, which had tarnished ever since he had become the red heads new partner. To say Sasori was not pleased (when was he ever) and cut detours out as much as possible, which meant no stopping and eating since he didn't require it. So as more missions took place the less he was allowed the time to eat unless he packed something and ate it along the way, but the Akatsuki base was never known for having very much food on hand- food that wouldn't expire quickly. So he had often gone without eating till he returned to their current base. Ultimately he had grown accustomed to the change and it got to the point that he would _forget_ to eat. At which point the others had taken notice…

"That wasn't because of Sasori, I _wasn't _depressed _about him_ un." Deidara informed with a bit of stress, waving a hand as if that would help prove his words.

Kisame frowned, studying the side of the artist's face, not hearing any inflection to signal that the blond was lying and his expression-from what he could see didn't hold anything either. "But you were still partners…, Surly you were upset to an extent?"

Deidara's eyes glanced briefly at the unyielding staring mist nin, he hadn't been the slightest bit upset, except for the fact that Tobi was becoming his new partner. "No. Not in the slightest." Deidara stated firmly.

Kisame opened and closed his mouth several times, clearly having trouble believing that, "how…?" He shook his head in shock disbelief, "why?"

Deidara grunted, thoroughly annoyed with this conversation and wishing that Kisame hadn't opened his big mouth, "he wasn't very likeable… after all he w_as_ made of wood, he didn't posses an ounce of good emotions, hmm."

Kisame stared, not sure to take the artist words for true or not but, "you _called _him Danna!"

Deidara's forehead creased, his eyes closing as the shout reverberated in his ears and sent tendrils of small throbbing pain to flare in his head, "well yeah… I admired his art even though it wasn't _true_ art hmm." He'd respected Sasori, up until a certain point.

"Just because I called him that didn't mean that I had any romantic interest in him." Deidara added to still the continued protest from Kisame, "besides I called _you_ that a lot back then to – still do, just not as often hmm." Deidara turned to look at the thin lipped male, "are you saying that because I call _you_ Danna that I have romantic feelings for you?"

Kisame opened his mouth, but closed it a moment later with a small shake of his head. He ran a blue hand through his dark blue hair and finally said, "I see your point." He knew that Deidara didn't feel that way about him yet it was odd how it hadn't occurred to him that the term 'Danna' was simply for respect for the _both _of them. The way Dei went around saying _Danna_ when referring to Sasori always felt more to it. But now that he thought about it Dei did seem to hold up exceedingly well for someone who he had supposedly loved and had died. So Dei didn't _love_ Sasori… never had. That was… interesting. But also a bit of a downer, out of everyone he knew Dei was the only one who had lost a partner, like him. He couldn't ask how someone else was dealing because they didn't know how it felt.

"So?" Deidara encouraged when Kisame stayed silent after his agreement.

Kisame angled his head away to look at the passing scenery, "never mind."

Deidara frowned but not totally surprised at the mist nin's change of mind. After all how much help could he be since he didn't love Sasori like Kisame did for Itachi. Kisame was clearly hurting, oddly enough. He wasn't used to this kind of thing and yet if it had been Tobi… he remembered the scare he'd had after his suicide bomb thinking Tobi had died. And he hadn't even been in a relationship with him then… so now he knew he'd probably be like Kisame if Tobi died. But…

Deidara raked his visible eye over the tall, broad form, despite the way he stood, his head was bent down slightly towards the ground, a clear indicator that he wasn't feeling great. He was depressed. How Kisame could love someone like Itachi, Deidara wasn't sure but he also didn't know that Itachi had been a spy for the leaf since the beginning. So why had Itachi gotten together with Kisame? Did the weasel actually _feel_ the same? Or was he simply using Kisame? A part of him wanted to say that Itachi had been simply using Kisame but he remembered when Kisame mentioned Itachi pushing him away shortly before he died. That signified that Itachi wanted to break things off to limit Kisame's hurt. But he didn't _know_ for sure… Perhaps telling Kisame the truth about Itachi would help him move on, even though Tobi _had _forbidden him from doing so. Granted if Kisame didn't keep the truth to himself and went to Pein, or Pein found out, and Kisame said he'd heard it from him then he'd be in quite the difficult spot. After all Pein would wonder how _he'd known_ of such information, which could possibly lead to the fact that he knew about Tobi and Tobi would _not_ be pleased. And even Kisame would wonder how he knew…

Argh… maybe it _was_ better to keep his mouth shut…

Deidara glanced again over at the taller, silent male. Well he didn't have to necessarily say that Itachi was for sure a spy. He could just suggest it. Deidara glanced skyward, as if by doing so that would give him the answer to his small dilemma.

One more glance at Kisame sealed his decision, "what if…" Deidara trailed off, unknowingly catching Kisame's immediate attention, since he was busy scowling at the grassy ground.

"Yes?" Kisame prodded, urging the artist to continue.

With a frown and a vague thought of regret continued, "what if Itachi... what if he was a spy?" spitting out quickly before he could _really _think of how much this could be a bad idea. Because he wasn't paying the shark nin the slightest bit of attention he missed the abrupt stop.

"What?" Kisame growled out feral like, sending a chill down Deidara's spine.

Deidara slowly came to a stop and turned to face the furious mist nin, who had a not so pleasant look on his face. His teeth shown sharply as he scowled, his beady eyes bore into him scortingly, like he was trying to set him on fire. Feeling nervous and mildly wishing he hadn't said anything muttered quickly, trying to appease the other, "well I just meant that if Itachi was a spy, then surely it would make it easier that he died un!"

Kisame took a step towards the fumbling blond, who stubbornly stood his ground as Kisame snapped, "How could you suggest something like that!"

Deidara felt several beads of sweat inch their way down the side of his face and he swallowed tightly, he'd never been faced with furiously pissed off Kisame before. And he was somewhat afraid of what the other would do. "You know that I despise Itachi!" Deidara snapped loudly, waving a hand to help his case.

Kisame's eyes narrowed dangerously and just as Deidara blinked a blue hand shot forward gripping tightly to the artist's throat.

Deidara stilled entirely, resisting the urge to pry at the others almost suffocating grip, knowing that it would only spur the shark nin on.

"He would never!" Kisame roared, shaking the blond a little, watching detachedly as his forehead creased, no doubt having trouble breathing but he was far too lost in his rage to think clearly.

"I-I never said he was!" Deidara choked out, his visible eye scrunched up, his hand's fisted tightly at his sides. "Same!" Deidara shouted hoping to bring reason back to the other. If Kisame didn't let go soon, he was going to throw a blasted bomb at him!

The grip tightened, and Deidara felt the little air he was receiving recede and he snapped his hands up, pulling at the arm wrapped around his throat, "S-same!" he gurgled out. Just as Deidara realized that tugging on the vise like grip _wasn't_ going to get the other to let go and suck up some clay the rage flaring in the mist nin's eyes faltered and shock realization crossed his face and he was suddenly released.

Deidara staggered a few paces away, his head positioned downwards towards the ground as he coughed; a hand found its way to his abused throat and began rubbing it, hoping to help ease the coughing.

"I-I'm sorry Dei," Kisame whispered, his head turned away from the hacking blond. "I don't know what came over me…"

Deidara waved a dismissive hand, "I-its fine," straitening once the coughing subsided. "I should have known that you wouldn't take well to such an idea." Even though it _was_ true. Well it didn't look like knowing the truth about Itachi would help Kisame in anyway…

Deidara sighed, dropping his hand from his throat, raking his eyes over the upset and mildly shocked mist nin. He didn't hold it against the other for attacking him like that, it wasn't like he wasn't used to it – Hidan loved to charge at him with his red scythe quite often and they were missing nin, no surprise. But instead of continuing on about it he decided that it was better left dropped and muttered, "We're almost there." a silent urge to keep going.

Kisame nodded, despite it not being seen and in silence they continued back to the base.

~88

End chap. Use your imagination on what happened to Akatsuchi.

Posted: 11/28/2013


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

To anonymous reviewer Guest: Thank you for leaving a review even though it was only about when the next update would be. Sorry this wasn't sooner.

To anonymous reviewer dogg: Thank you very much for reviewing! It would be something. Hopefully whatever happens isn't a disappointment.

So I got drunk for the very first time last night ^-^. I wasn't super drunk but enough that I had trouble walking and felt ill for a while. Oops. I was not drunk at all when I wrote this chapter.

Here is a quick summary of the whole story so far.

**Summary:** Deidara has not been eating and the other members are starting to take note. Sasori is abusing Dei, poisoning him. Tobi finds out informs Pein and that is stopped but not the physical abuse. Sasori and Dei then go after Gaara, and Sasori is killed and Dei losses his arms. Tobi becomes his new partner. Their first mission together is to kill a non shinobi girl, Tobi does the deed and Dei kills their client but only after getting the money. After the three tails Dei demands to kill Sasuke after learning that he killed Orochimaru, Pein allows it. Dei attempts to blow himself up but Tobi intervenes and he survives as does Sasuke.

Tobi kisses Dei and reveals his true identity. Dei rejects. During a mission Dei has a run in with three cloud nin who try to rape him, Tobi saves him. As Pein kills Jiraiya, Kisame tells Dei about how odd Itachi has been, Pein then says he's going to the leaf. Dei has come to realize something for Tobi and agrees to give him a chance. After finding out Tobi can teleport, a man hits on Dei only to be knocked out by Tobi and Dei learns why Tobi loves him.

The destruction of the leaf by Pein takes place. Yamato arrives gives chase and talks to Dei. Then is killed by Tobi. Dei fixated confronts Pein about being related to Naruto and Tobi agrees to let Dei go to rock with Kisame. Pein and Konan run into Onoki and old team of Dei's, Onoki beats Dei. Dei finds what he wants and blows up a good portion of his former village. Kisame asks Dei on their way back how he dealt with Sasori's death only to learn that Dei was not upset. The reason for Dei's lack of eating is finally solved.

And here we are.

Hidden Underneath

Chapter 21 – To Be... Blackmailed?

The room was silent, almost eerily so, the wind was still with no falling snow, the cold slithered through the open window leaving an aching chill that would not subside.

Despite this Naruto lay on his back in only his orange and black jumpsuit, he couldn't be bothered to get up and dress warmly, as a shinobi he had to be able to deal with the changing seasons. Besides that if he got _too_ cold he'd warm up but after traveling through the snow he had little interest in bundling up. And even with the window open some of the heat was present in the room, he could feel just enough of it that it eroded any concern about freezing.

He stared up at the wooden ceiling, the coldness of the room slithering to the back of his mind as more pressing, important thoughts poked at him. He along with Kakashi had left the leaf – that was going under construction at a nice pace, to the land of Iron. When he had heard of the news pertaining to Sasuke and his apparent involvement with the Akatsuki, all he could think was 'that's impossible'. How could Sasuke work for the organization his brother had been a part of? But then he had learned from the cloud nins, that Sasuke was now a missing nin... Sure a part of him new that that should have been the case when Sasuke left several years ago and it was only Tusnada's doing that it wasn't so, but the _Akatsuki?_

Sasuke was his friend, was-still a member of team seven, and he _would_ bring him back like he had promised... and yet... no matter what he did, no matter how far he pushed Sasuke kept getting farther and farther out of reach. He would have thought things would be easier with Itachi's death - that _was_ Sasuke's goal, had been his goal for _years_. But now instead of coming back he was _helping_ the Akatsuki? That... that didn't make sense! Why would he willing help them? Why would the Akatsuki _want_ Sasuke?

Naruto groaned lowly as his eyes slipped shut, blocking the world from view. His mind stilled his rapid thoughts- no matter how many questions he asked he didn't and _wouldn't_ have the answer, only speculation, more interested in focusing on the fact that Sasuke had _killed_ his brother. Did Sasuke _feel _better because of it? Did taking revenge become all that he had hoped? If it had... wouldn't he have returned?

Was that why? Was Sasuke perhaps regretting killing Itachi, his brother? But if that was the case, why _join_ the organization his brother had been involved in?

Naruto thought back to the news he had heard not too long ago, about _him_ having a brother, a _real_, blood brother. At first he had felt numb, he just simply couldn't fathom that he _had_ a brother and that he was alive. Elation probably would have hit so strongly like being dunked in freezing water if only his so called brother hadn't been a criminal and worse apart of the Akatsuki, the organization that hunted him and planned to kill him.

But wasn't it in a way like Sasuke? Sasuke was considered a criminal by the rest of the world and technically _he_ should as well, but he didn't, he couldn't. And why was that? Because they were friends, a team.

An irritating poke at the back of his head stilled his musings, but he ignored it, it was only the fox, he didn't _care_ what he had to say.

He sighed heavily letting his previous thoughts go and instead allowed his mind to wonder to the reconstruction of the leaf. With that furious anger coursed through him, his fists tightening, his nails almost piercing his skin. Releasing a heavy breath in an attempt to calm down, a suffocating sadness blanketed him, Pein, the Akatsuki leader, by destroying his home he had killed so _many_ people. So many! And the most frustrating, irritating thing was that he had gotten away, he was _alive_ out there planning and would return.

If only he had gone with Yamato, then... then Yamato would still be _alive._ He was dead and he had been the last to see him... and Pein _had _to have been the one responsible... it was the most logical conclusion seeing as Yamato had taken off after him. But they weren't sure... it could have been another member or even an unrelated Akatsuki nin, but they would most likely never know. A few uninjured nins and scoured the area but they couldn't find his body... they doubted he'd been captured but even if that was the case, they would more than likely never find him and he would ultimately die.

Yamato may not have been a part of team seven for long but he had quickly become part of the team. It in a small way was like losing Sasuke all over again.

Naruto grunted in serious frustration as his mind came back to Sasuke. That seemed to be the only thing he could ever really think about, Sasuke this Sasuke that...

Feeling more frustrated then when he had first settled down, he shifted onto his side, his back facing the open window, his hands fisted tightly, but not enough to draw blood. His eyes were scrunched tight, all he could see was Sasuke moving away from him and feel so powerless to stop it.

"Hey."

The sudden deep yet slightly familiar voice had his eyes snapping open as the rest of him froze in shock and slight terror. For a moment he simply laid there, staring unseeingly at the wood before him as the voice continued, "how about we talk, Uzamaki Naruto?"

He didn't give the words much time to process, more focused on the fact that this was the man from the woods who had stopped them when they were searching for Sasuke. His fists tightened for a fraction of a second, his eyes narrowed to slits as he swiftly turned around with a loud shout, "You!" Immediately after he was shooting a resangan at the sitting male with one arm propped under his chin and the other lay casually on his leg, his masked face titled a little to the side.

A loud cracking sound tore through the medium sized room before dust enveloped him, with an irritated cough and a wave of his arm Naruto gaped at the empty place.

"A resangan right off the bat, huh?"

Naruto jolted swerving towards the voice as his clone poofed, the masked nin was standing on top of the snow covered roof, uninjured.

"You know it doesn't work on me right?" The newcomer hummed with a slight downward tilt of his head, his eye fixed to the whiskered face.

Naruto scowled, but couldn't help but feel rather afraid of this individual, when they had met this masked nin in the forest a while back, none of them had been able to hit him. And if they couldn't hit him, they couldn't beat him. Sweat tickled the side of his forehead as a glare settled on his face, his fists tightly clenched. Everyone had a weakness, so the masked nin had to have one as well, it was a simple matter of finding it. Still, why had the masked nin made his presence known? He hadn't noticed the raven till he had spoken, which means that the other could have grabbed him... Naruto swallowed thickly, feeling grateful that the masked nin _had_ spoken – it gave him a fighting chance.

Naruto's eyes went slightly wide as Kakashi suddenly appeared on the roof, a kuni in one hand and a bright blue orb in the other, known as his chidori.

The masked nin didn't move despite the clear threat, he simply bore his gaze into the young face. A part of him knew he should have grabbed the kid, the blond had been completely unaware of his presence until he had spoken – not that he had expected the kid to notice him, he would have been surprised if he had. But they were simply not ready for the nine-tails just yet and while they could lock the kid up and keep him detained until they _were_ ready, he wanted Naruto and Sasuke to face each other. Even though neither one of them were going to live at the end of all this, but he at the moment needed Sasuke alive and needed him to go as planned and Sasuke facing Naruto was imperative. That and the fight would drain the blond so even if Sasuke somehow lost, Naruto would be in no position to defend himself. But even if the kid managed to get out of that predicament, it would be no trouble for him to capture the kid, which is why it was no big deal that he wasn't going to grab the kid now.

A light drizzle of snow began to fall, the sky dark but Naruto simply ignored this and the growing aching chill as the cold increased. Feeling more comfortable now that Kakashi was here and ready to attack snapped an arm up, pointing rudely at the raven, shouting with anger in his voice, "Oi! What do want with Sasuke!"

"Sasuke?" The raven echoed sounding almost surprised at the question. Tobi opened his closed eye - having closed it while contemplating for a few moments, boring his red unseen gaze into the spitting image of the fourth. "Very well, I will tell you." It was hardly a big deal to do so and it may even cause fissure among the reaming leaf.

Naruto's face twisted in startled surprise and light shock, having not expected the masked nin to tell him just like that. Kakashi remained intently focused on the raven who hadn't bothered to move even an inch when he appeared on the roof with clear intentions to attack, despite the stiffness of his body he was quite curious as to what the raven had to say.

Both Naruto and Kakashi's thoughts stilled as the masked nin started to speak, "about the man whose hatred of the ninja world runs through his bones to his very core. About Sasuke, Sasuke's story cannot be told without mentioning Itachi."

A few minutes later, after the raven had finished speaking Naruto stared up with a fierce glare, his teeth clenched tight, and his fists fisted so tightly he felt he would pierce his skin and bleed. Most of his anger was at the fact that the unidentifiable nin – who he was sure said his name was Tobi back when they first met him in the woods, had the gall to say that Sasuke and he would fight – were next in line to fight. While he knew, deep inside of him that in order to bring Sasuke back it would require him to fight him didn't mean it was fate or whatever. But if the raven truly meant for him to fight Sasuke that would explain why he hadn't captured him earlier, yet that didn't explain the past attempts...

Shaking his head Naruto refocused his intent gaze on the masked nin – who despite the clear threat from Kakashi and the supposed want to simply _talk_ could still try to capture him. Staring up angrily at the pair on the roof, though his anger was only directed at the cloaked garb with the printed red clouds that was the symbol of the Akatsuki, briefly contemplated asking- _demanding _about his so called brother, after all this masked nin was a member and chances are knew... but doubted the raven would indulge in his question unlike with his question about Sasuke. So he simply refrained, right now was not the time anyways.

But before he could hiss anything Kakashi spoke up, his tone placid, "if that worthless thing is your goal, then why are you gathering the Bijuu? What the hell are you - the Akatsuki after!? What do u want?"

Tobi simply tilted his head a fraction towards the copy nin uttering aloofly, "oh, yeah... If you really need an answer, I guess it'll have to be to become a complete being."

Kakashi's discolored eyes narrowed a tad as he parroted, "complete being?"

Naruto worked his mouth silently, he too very curious as to what the raven meant yet let Kakashi do the talking.

Tobi tilted his head away from the slightly taller male, "it wouldn't really matter if I told you. I think I'll talk about it at a more appropriate location. It's been fun talking to you." Just as he finished speaking he activated his teleporting jutsu and began to vanish, uttering, "see you around." With that the orange masked nin disappeared without a trace.

Kakashi sighed loosely, his shoulders drooping a little and he deactivated his chidori, letting it fade out of existence, "the transportation technique... it's such a troublesome jutsu." He closed his eye, using a term a pair of shadow users were fond of saying as he jumped down from the snow covered roof and into the room where Naruto remained unharmed, thankfully.

Naruto straightened, his hands fisted at his sides as he shuffled the few paces to where Kakashi stood, asking softly with uncertainty, "Kakashi-Sensei, what he was saying..."

"It's dangerous to believe his story." Kakashi replied simply.

Naruto felt his mouth drop a little and he tilted forward, an arm raised just above his waist as he practically shouted, "But if it's true, Sasuke is..."

"Naruto."

The slightly sharp command effectively stopped Naruto's words. Kakashi lifted a hand up to his face and pulled the material of his headband down, completely covering his closed eye before speaking, "I know how you feel, but you must not be impatient." With a half lidded gaze he gave a quick once over the damaged room before settling back on the slightly frustrated and irritated yet almost solemn face, "for now, we'll keep what he said to ourselves, in absolute secrecy. We're in the midst of reconstruction and must avoid unnecessary mayhem. Furthermore, until we check the facts, we can't trust him." He paused for a moment, his eye closing for a mere moment before continuing, "There's too much that we don't know about his claim that the higher ups in the Hidden Leaf used Itachi to slaughter the Uchiha clan. Do you understand, Naruto?"

Naruto gazed with a tight lipped frown, his head tilting down just a tad as he grunted out with difficulty, "yeah, I know." His hands fisting tighter – which had loosened the moment the masked raven vanished, in irritation.

Naruto closed his eyes, feeling worse than he had since getting to the land of Iron. He angled his head away from his Sensei feeling somewhat irritated at the older male but knew he spoke the truth and gazed at the lightly falling snow. One thought much more prominate than any other echoed in his head and he wished tremendously that he could erase ever hearing such a thing.

_Had the leaf really, truly had Itachi kill the Uchiha clan?_

~88

As soon as he had finished his talk with Naruto and Kakashi he had made his way to the summit to see how Sasuke was doing – needless to say he had excellent timing as just moments ago Sasuke had been about to be obliterated by Onoki of Rock. There was no way Sasuke would have managed to get out of that alive, even if he had been at full strength and health.

"My name is Tobi." Tobi stated in his deeper tone, as he stood on a slightly damaged surface with Sasuke over his shoulder, his arm holding him in place as he gazed at the group of nins huddled together in the decent sized room. All the Kage's were present save for one, Danzo – he had taken his chance to make his escape, no matter he would catch up to him in due time.

Having all eyes on him he stated, "I have something I want to explain to all of you. And once you comprehend it, I want to pose a question."

With a scowl and a stern look the Raikage snapped, "what is it?!"

Tobi cocked his head just a little, his eye quickly going over the faces, "It's about my plan, Project Tsuki no me." Or in other words, his moon eye plan. A still almost deafening silence descended and Tobi couldn't help but smirk at how smoothly things were going.

~88

The snow was still, the sky a lighter color then earlier, the dark had receded, the vast structure that symbolized the land of Iron lay a fair distance behind him. Tobi stood still in the thick snow, not minding the ankle deep length – for if he cared he could just walk on top of the snow using chakra. His talk with the Kages had gone just as expected and his declaration of war had been passed. It would be interesting to see in the ensuing days and probable months how well the Allied forces handled themselves. After all getting every single individual to heed and to agree with piling together would be an impossible challenge. He knew that there was no way that everyone would be able to let go of their hatred and grudges to the villages that have been harbored for years, decades. That was why the world was divided, why wars continued to rage.

It was foolish to think that Allying all the great nations and smaller less important villages would be able to prevent discord. But they would try, which actually worked in his favor.

Tobi glanced upwards to the quiet sky, like the calm before the storm, it was fitting – war had just begun, it was as if the sky felt it and was simply waiting for the plunge.

With a sigh Tobi broke his gaze and moved forward a few paces gliding easily through the thick substance, his mind going over one of the few concerns he had yet to deal with, Kabuto. His intelligence had indicated that Orochimaru's former head spy was here, but he had taken so long to make it here... he knew he should have played it smart and teleported, why hadn't he? Mostly he had been certain that Kabuto would remain here for a good while – assuming his intelligence was correct and Kabuto was indeed hiding in this frozen wasteland. But the land of Iron was made up of vast amounts of snow; the whiteness of this land is also vast, almost blindingly. And as much as he wanted to scour the place while he was here a far more important and immediate concern took precedence, Danzo. He had escaped from the summit during the commotion and was for sure on his way back to the Leaf – while that wouldn't provide ample protection it left numerous barriers to go through. Catching Danzo before he reached the leaf would be far more ideal. And he would very much like to pit Sasuke on the leader of the foundation, he was eager to see how well Sasuke fared, and it would help evolve the younger raven. In some ways it was disappointing that he had agreed to kill Sasuke at the end, he was very useful and the last remaining Uchiha. Killing Sasuke would completely destroy that line – not that Sasuke would ever be able to produce heirs carrying the Uchiha gene. But he had promised Deidara and Deidara came first, that and Sasuke had been the result of the artist nearly succeeding in killing himself. If it hadn't of happened then it could have happened when he wasn't present and would have been unable to intervene and Deidara would have died. For that alone Sasuke would die a quick death – that and he'd already tormented the kid.

With a light almost dreary sigh, Tobi halted giving the impression he was enjoying the view – there wasn't much to look at, and then abruptly he vanished, leaving only faint tracks in the snow which would be soon covered up as the sky let loose more snow.

~88

Tobi smirked, as he vanished from his spot on the rock entrance to stop Danzo's retreat. He had caught up with Danzo and his two henchmen not to terribly far outside of Iron; he quickly dispensed of the two root members and then had sicced Sasuke onto Danzo. The fight had been rather interesting. Sasuke had done quite well and his hate had farther developed. Now all that was left was to kill Danzo and take Shisui's eye.

"Danzo…" Tobi voiced his tone slightly smug as he enjoyed the shock and light horror on Danzo's face. Clearly the old man had figured he was screwed, and he was milking this moment.

Sasuke frowned lightly at the interruption but made no comment, as Tobi continued, "I'll be taking Shisui's eye."

Shock and surprise ran across Sasuke's face, a memory of some of his clansmen and Itachi popping into his head before his face darkened and he glared at the back of Danzo's head.

Danzo glared, seething at the masked nin, blood dripping from his chin and the wound in his chest. _It couldn't end like this! _He gripped his white shirt tightly, why hadn't he gotten the hell out of here when he had the chance? Better yet why hadn't he had Sasuke killed after finding out that Itachi left him live?He flung his shirt to the side, exposing his tan chest and shouted angrily, adamantly, "for the sake of the shinobi world… for the sake of the Hidden Leaf…"He paused for a fraction of a second before finishing with, "I will not let you both live!"

Tobi jerked back slightly, shock shooting through him as he muttered, "this is the reverse tetragram sealing jutsu!"

Black ink sprayed and Tobi shouted, "Sasuke! Get away from Danzo!" knowing Sasuke wouldn't know the seriousness of the situation.

Sasuke instantly flung backwards, while he sunk into the rock beneath his feet, his sharingan watching the ever growing blankness until he could no longer see it as he completely vanished into the stone.

A giant 'boom' resounded before he reappeared onto a high ledge to survey the damage, his eye falling onto the still and very much dead body of Danzo. A smirk lit up his features; it had taken far too many years to get to this point, the leader of the foundation was dead.

He ignored the younger male as Sasuke stopped beside's him, no doubt pleased with Danzo's death. He jumped down, stopping besides the still body, and frowned in irritation, _damn Danzo… he destroyed Shisui's eye._

He kneeled, placing his only remaining gloved hand – he had lost an arm during the fight against the two root members, on the corpse and sucked in Danzo's body, leaving just a hole behind. He turned to glance at the other, "you should retire and recuperate."

Sasuke frowned making a small 'tch' noise causing Tobi to glare lightly. Sasuke lacked patience, if nothing else that for sure would be the death of him. Patience was necessary to achieve one's goals, if he lacked any, he would not have gotten as far as he has.

"The elder's of the leaf aren't going anywhere, rest. You've over used your eyes and your chakra is severely low." Tobi stated, voicing his response to Sasuke's next words.

Sasuke merely grunted, dismissing the older man's words as he jumped the small distance, his eyes going to the female collapsed by some ruble. His eye twitched in slight irritation as Tobi brushed past him.

Tobi glanced at the injured girl before tilting his head back to the stony raven, "if you no longer have use of her, I suggest you kill her. She knows too much about us." The female he had brought had been held captive by Danzo, only to have Sasuke shoot lighting right through her to pierce Danzo.

"Us?" Sasuke parroted his face bland, "when did I join you?"

Tobi gave a light chuckle despite the slight annoyance, Sasuke was a loose cannon. He was starting to believe that killing Sasuke _was_ much more beneficial after all. While he had roughly filled Sasuke in – not that he was the true leader only giving privilege to speaking normally – in his deeper voice then as Tobi and that he was an Uchiha, without revealing that he knew it was slim that Sasuke wouldn't have been even the slightest interested in hearing him out and _helping _him. Of course Itachi had already informed him that there was another Uchiha out there. It was risky even portraying that much but he couldn't have Pein deal with the kid – since he was clearly against it and at this point plotting to kill him, and the chances of Sasuke dealing with any of the un-informed members were slim, so a risk worth taking. Ignoring the words, he turned, his back facing the last living Uchiha, and vanished, leaving behind the ruined bridge and two shinobi.

~88

Tobi crossed his arms in annoyance, Sasuke was a trouble magnet. And the nine tail's brat was irritating…

And worse it looked like Naruto was managing to break Sasuke's wall, which would quite frankly ruin all the work he'd done. If the wall was broken and Naruto succeeded in changing Sasuke's new ideals and way of doing things then he would simply have no choice but to kill the last Uchiha early. That would be unfortunate. Perhaps, instead it would be wise to capture Naruto early, to limit him from doing anything else.

With an irritated shake of his head Tobi rounded to the latest incident between Sasuke and the nine tails brat, he had been informed by Zetsu's white side – who had accompanied him to Iron and was a part of the confrontation at the summit, that Sasuke had run into trouble at the bridge. He had immediately set out by teleporting as he couldn't leave Zetsu to get Sasuke out of his predicament – he was a spy not exactly ideal for fighting, nor particularly strong.

He'd pulled Sasuke out of there with minimal resistance - but not before Naruto managed to get under Sasuke's thick, almost impenetrable skin and now was currently resting, recovering from the implants of Itachi's eyes – Sasuke was about blind, he'd used his sharingan far too much. Luckily for him - a blind Uchiha was of no use, and he wasn't about to spare any of his collection to the insolent little brat, no matter how currently important Sasuke was. His collection – at the time of the Uchiha massacre, which he'd helped Itachi do, he'd collected as many eyes of the fallen as he could. (?)

With a heavy sigh Tobi exited the dense forest he'd been wading through – he had teleported into the forest not too far from his destination that he had not minded in walking the remaining length. Long thick white bones protruded above the thick green tress, moss clinging to them and a long skeleton of some kind of creature – animal lay stretched out, a mountain higher than the bone structure lay behind almost dwarfing the said object, little holes in the shape of rectangles littered the mountain wall, giving the impression that they were windows but gave off more of a feel of decoration than anything else.

A tingle of alarm alerted him to a presence – a presence that _should_ not have been present for this location was guarded strictly, no one besides Zetsu knew of this location. It couldn't be Pein or Konan, there was no way either of them had found this place – even though a small part whispered that perhaps they had and this is where they intended to _try_ to kill him. But as he stopped several paces from the skeleton and looked up, his gaze fell on a robed figure in brown almost red and a hood resting over their face. But he had no trouble distinguishing who stood atop one of the smaller structures and his eye narrowed sharply.

It would seem that Kabuto was no longer in the land of Iron – if he had ever been to begin with. The robed figure shifted a little, the round glasses glinted a little under the hood, his eyes yellowish almost gold, and around the eyes they were marked with purple – like Orochimaru's had been, and his skin was scaly like a snake – which was pretty accurate as moments later a long thick scaly tail appeared with a snake head at the end.

Tobi ignored Kabuto's 'greeting', stating deeply "You did well to find this place."

Kabuto only vaguely tilted his head a little as if acknowledging the words, "I roamed from country to country as a spy and I once belonged to the Akatsuki. Don't underestimate my Intel network."

Tobi simply frowned a little under his orange spiral mask that held minor cracks, "you were once one of Sasori's spies. You are a traitor to the Akatsuki." Not wasting another word Tobi moved a pace forward before shooting upward towards the standing form, with all intentions of killing the other.

Kabuto flung backwards landing solidly onto the ground with a wide smirk – clearly feeling no fear before skidding back a little as Tobi landed in front of him.

"Now, now that's no way to treat a guest is it?" Kabuto inclined his head taking in the battle ready posture of the raven and hastily continued, "I didn't come here to fight. I only mean to help. "

Tobi loosened his posture deciding that hearing what Kabuto had to say wouldn't hurt, and he was amused that Kabuto had the gall to say he had interest in helping him – the Akatsuki's cause. Kabuto was loyal to Orochimaru and the snake Sannin _despised_ the Akatsuki and had vowed revenge; he seriously doubted Kabuto had true intentions to help… unless absorbing the part of Orochimaru that was left had messed up Kabuto's reasoning. Was the snake more in control or was Kabuto?

"And what do you have to offer as proof of your intentions?" Tobi asked with partial curiosity. Kabuto had nothing to give to help his cause, therefore it was ludicrous that the morphed male had the nerve to come here offering his service. And he was a known spy – spies could not be trusted… usually, Zetsu was the exception.

"You mean besides my own Intel? Obviously its far better or equal to the Akatsuki's if I found this place." Kabuto voiced with smugness, the smirk still etched onto his face. "I have the ability," he paused, his arms coming up in a vague gesture – that really held no meaning, "to bring people back to life – well as close to it as I could." Kabuto inclined his head having noted the slight tilt of the masked face, presuming that the raven was a least a little curious and interested. "As," he continued, knowing the other would be growing impatient and he would rather get what he wanted to say then deal with an unnecessary fight, "zombies."

Tobi blinked yet his eye remained narrowed.

Before Tobi could say anything Kabuto added, "I would have brought a demonstration but I didn't want to bring back random nins, that's such a waste but if you have someone in mind I could show you."

Tobi tilted his head back, regarding the robed male, "what do you want?" His question implied that he was interested and to some degree he was but was dealing with Kabuto a good idea in the long run or would be killing him – as planned be the smarter decision? Was the gain of zombies worth it? After all, _currently_ he had the members of the Akatsuki, how could Kabuto provide better than them?

Kabuto's eyes narrowed a fraction, his smirk widening a little as if he'd already had Tobi's agreement, "I want us to join forces."

Tobi couldn't help it, his eye widened in surprise that was not what he had been expecting to hear – granted he hadn't been certain as to what to expect but that was certainly not it. "Join forces?" he parroted. His eye narrowed, "how will that benefit me – the Akatsuki?"

"I understand you intend to start a war soon. I'm offering to provide more military might, hence my zombie jutus." Kabuto stated as his tail with the snake head raised upward till it was almost level with his face. He glanced at it briefly before returning a burning gaze to the masked nin.

"And in exchange?" Tobi asked, ignoring the way the words had been phrased.

It didn't take even a minute before Kabuto practically blurted out, "Sasuke Uchiha."

Tobi's eye darkened, "what are you plotting?" What good was Sasuke to Kabuto now?

Kabuto raised his arms outward as if to say he was harmless, "nothing really. I am only interested in the pure truth behind ninjutsu. And I need Sasuke to peruse this. I need a young, live sensitive Uchiha." Kabuto's voice raised a tad in excitement at the end, his eye going wide at the mere thought of having Sasuke.

Tobi wasn't impressed, "and if I refuse?" As a supposed, simple member he had the right to refuse without taking it up with the leader. Despite the fact that in most cases it wasn't so – but on adding to the organization, as in having more than ten members, he didn't need to take it up with the leader.

A devious, knowing smirk replaced the plain one, "surely you didn't think I would come unprepared? Did you… Madara?"

Tobi felt his body freeze and he felt his breath still for a nano second before his eyes narrowed to slits, "Y-you… W-where did y-you…!" Much to his vexation he couldn't seem to articulate what he wanted, but knew that Kabuto had a good idea what he was attempting to voice.

Inwardly he snapped furiously, _how!?_ How had Kabuto come across the name – how had he come to believe it was _his_ name!? He had been careful, meticulously so to keep his real name secret – only Zetsu, (and of course Pein and Konan) and at a time Itachi knew of his name… and recently Deidara but he knew neither of them had told anyone, least of all Kabuto. While he knew Itachi could have passed on his name to the leaf – which was unlikely and even if he had there was still the matter on whether the leaf believed it, but he wouldn't have told Kabuto and for the most part he'd never had such an opportunity to do so. Zetsu was absolutely loyal he wouldn't have leaked and Dei… he knew that the artist couldn't have told Kabuto – he'd been with Dei for a large part since informing the blond and he doubted they had crossed paths since he left.

A small part of his mind whispered strongly that perhaps Kabuto had simply been guessing and if that had been the case he had confirmed it… his words said as much. But no, Kabuto had stated it with such _certainty_, he wasn't fishing, Kabuto _knew._ And chances are if he knew his real name… then he most likely knew that he was the real leader to. It was likely, the way he'd phrased his sentences seemed to suggest so.

Kabuto took a single pace forward, the smugness still etched on his features, "I told you earlier – don't underestimate my Intel." His eyes narrowed a little, rather pleased with the way things had so far played out, "you can't refuse," he stated in adamant certainty. He didn't _need_ to state what would happen if Madara did refuse but roving his yellowish eyes over the stiff form he felt it might help his case if he voiced thus, "if you _do_ refuse, I will tell the world – particularly the five great villages of your _true_ identity and your true role among the Akatsuki."

_So he does know…_ Tobi thought darkly, a part of him wanting to laugh at the situation but he determinedly quelled the urge, but if he simply killed…

"And before you go off plotting to kill me to silence me," Kabuto interrupted, instantly gaining the masked nin's attention which enabled him to gesture lightly to the woods behind the raven, "not too far from here, thanks to my trail – I'm sure if you concentrate you can feel that we are not so alone, fighting now would draw their attention to this exact spot – and from their I could shout your name, your _true_ name." And having several leaf nin's hear the name 'Madara', well with the name implanted into their thoughts they wouldn't leave it alone, especially since there was at least some among the leaf that knew that the masked nin possessed the sharingan.

Tobi's fists clenched tightly at his sides, anger like never before coursed through him and it was only thanks to thin restraint and of his reasoning that he refrained from attacking the smug male. It would not be wise to risk it. But Kabuto could _not_ be trusted, letting him live would threaten him. Perhaps… perhaps he _should_ allow his name to be told. Why should he care if the world found out he was still alive? Eventually he had planned to reveal thus information but he felt it to soon, war had just begun and any ace in the hole was best kept secret.

Could he kill Kabuto and the unidentifiable numbers of the nins before Kabuto spilled? Before the nins sent off a lone individual to tell the leaf of their current location and of what he has heard? What of the two options was more threatening?

A part of him bore down on Kabuto being the worse of the two… but Kabuto was offering added might – and with a war on the way, it could be beneficial. And he knew Kabuto couldn't be trusted – which meant he simply had to keep a close eye on him and to some extent knew what to expect. That and Kabuto _wanted_ Sasuke so until he had him… he for the most part would behave.

Tobi straightened, and this time couldn't help the light chuckle, his shoulders moving visibly.

Kabuto's smirk wiped clean a frown taking its place as his head tilted down a little, "what's so funny?" Considering he'd boxed the other – he _really_ had no reason to laugh.

"Kabuto Yakushi. Never did I imagine that you would come this far." Tobi stated with some irritation, he had _felt_ that not killing Kabuto as soon as possible would come back and bite him and it certainly did, it was infuriating! He heaved a heavy sigh and resumed speaking, "arguing with you will serve me none. You came here, waiting for the perfect opportunity. You are _very_ careful indeed."

Kabuto shifted a little his glasses catching the light preventing his eyes from being seen, an annoying habit of his, "what do you mean?" A part of him felt the slow rise of excitement, it _sounded_ like Madara was agreeing.

A small silence issued as the two nins simply eyed each other before Tobi broke it, giving Kabuto his desired answer, "So be it. We will join forces with you." Briefly thinking how much Pein would be displeased with his decision and that _if_ by some miracle succeeded in killing him Pein would have to deal with the aftermath of said decision. "But only on the condition that I hand Sasuke over to you _after_ victory in this war is assured. You will not be allowed to see Sasuke until then." Not that he had any intentions of giving Sasuke to Kabuto.

"You understand things clearly. I expected no less from _you._"

"And you are insolent." Tobi uttered in annoyance, far from pleased with this unforeseen turn of events. He turned his back to Kabuto, "follow me." They had to go over several things now that he'd giving consent to their 'teaming' up. Unfortunately that meant he would be delayed here longer then he had originally planned. It was supposed to be a simply sweep – nothing big and then he would return to see if Deidara had gotten back. He was quite anxious to see the artist.

He shook his head unnoticeably; sincerely hoping things worked out in his favor, and as Kabuto trailed behind him, his eye narrowed with hidden anger,

_Damn Kabuto._

~End Chap

Some commentary was taken from the Japanese subs.

Argh, I hate the title.

Okay so I'm going to say something that I haven't before, please review. Reviews are my motivators and the reason I post. And the more reviews I get the faster I will update.

Posted 3/10/2014


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

To **Guest review**: Thanks for informing me about SOPA being back. Hmm, I have not heard anything else about it since the initial petition and this review.

Finals are over! And I am quite pleased with the results. I was rather worried for one class – Philosophy was very enjoyable and I loved going but the tests were hard! But I passed so all is good.

Also I am quite pleased with getting this chap out in a little over two months :) I apologize for any grammar issues and the like; I have not got a new beta. Speaking of which, this will be the last time I ask, if anyone would like to be my new beta email me. But just because I stop asking does not mean that you can't still be a beta should someone decide after this chap – simply email me. I simply see no reason to continue to ask/mention it.

Chapter 22 – What Must Be Done

A loud heavy sigh was released as Deidara reclined back a bit, his mouthed hands bracing behind him for support as he gazed in disinterest at the bland scene before him. He had just come from a small village – having needed to pass through it for some much needed food (Tobi's pushing on the subject had given him the need to mind the thought), and chosen to stop and be lazy. The hideout wasn't too far from his current location and while he _should_ have been concerned with meeting up with Pein to tell him how things went, he wasn't in any hurry especially since Pein wasn't the real leader.

He was alone now, having previously been in the company of Kisame but the former mist nin had insisted they part ways before reaching the hideout. Having been curious as to _why_ Kisame felt the need to do so – it was also unusual as they needed to report in, but he simply received a toothy grin and that Pein wanted him to take care of something – that was why he had been late before they had started this mission. Deidara could tell no amount of pestering would unveil a better, accurate answer and had fallen silent, simply watching the former mist nin head off in the opposite direction from which they had been traveling.

Thoroughly annoyed he decided Pein could wait – besides it wasn't like he would _know_ that he had decided to stop and enjoy the scenery.

And that was where Tobi found him.

Tobi took in the long lightly flowing hair – due to the light breeze and battered cloak and stated deeply, alerting the spacing male of his presence "Is the scenery that captivating?"

Deidara startled his body jolting at the unexpected voice and whipped his head around just enough to spot Tobi to the left with his arms crossed and clearly staring at him but because of the mask couldn't determine _what_ Tobi was thinking. "How did you find me, un?" Deidara asked curiously a light tinge of suspicion gracing his tone, ignoring the rhetorical question.

"I know your chakra." While silently adding, and the ring.

Deidara's eyebrow rose but didn't press – he was hardly that curious, brushing the small thought that Tobi had been tailing him – if he had Deidara was sure he would have intervened at the very least during his fight with the old fart.

"How did it go?" Tobi asked, not needing to clarify what he was asking. He had come straight here after wrapping things up with Kabuto so hadn't heard from Pein yet. Though, Tobi pondered his intent gaze slipping away from the artist for a moment to glance in the direction of the hideout, perhaps Deidara hadn't made it there yet.

Deidara shrugged, turning away from the imploring gaze he knew was on the ravens face despite not being able to see due to the mask, "fine… considering."

Tobi frowned hardly satisfied with that uninformative reply, "what do you mean?" his tone demanding.

Deidara felt the urge to shrug again but refrained, he felt that would only ignite the older nins anger and he wasn't trying to piss Tobi off, but he _really _didn't want to tell about his run in with Oonki.

"Deidara." Tobi growled out lightly, his patience already thin from dealing with Kabuto and his mood had not improved much despite seeing his blond alive and well.

Deidara's eyes fell shut and he let loose a small sigh, if there was _one_ thing that annoyed him about his relationship with Tobi it was how _demanding_ he would get and then of course his possessiveness but _that_ he didn't mind nearly as much. He just simply _hated_ being ordered around…

"We, er…" Deidara paused, part for time – as if delaying long enough Tobi would deem it unimportant, he was not sure how Tobi would take the news and didn't care to see… but hastily continued as he felt Tobi about to speak, "we ran into some rock nins… and Onoki."

It took a few moments for the words to register but when they did Tobi felt his arms drop to his sides and his breath stilled – that never seemed to happen before but as of late was becoming a habit, "what?" he unintentionally voiced. He quickly swept his lone gaze over the sitting form, Deidara looked fine, no massive injuries from what he could see, though his cloak had seen better days.

Deidara ignored the snapped question, feeling it more rhetorical and simply gazed out at the vast land -he was sitting on the edge of a cliff.

Tobi knew Onoki was alive seeing as he had seen him at the summit and he was certain the run in had taken place before the summit. "How'd that go?" They were both alive but he wanted to hear of the proceedings, "and Kisame?"

Deidara sighed heavily expressing his annoyance but nonetheless complied, "Good… up to a point," he trailed off, vastly hesitant to voice his short comings – that Onoki was _better_ than him, had _beaten _him. "Kisame dealt with his two companions, I handled Onoki, but…" Deidara's words failed and he gritted his teeth.

Tobi saved the artist the trouble of having to voice aloud the outcome, "he was stronger then you." He knew he'd interpreted correctly at the way the blond stiffened farther, he was hardly surprised, Onoki would prove even a challenge to him.

"Kisame intervened," Deidara plowed on after a tense silence, "told me to leave and I did, hmm."

Tobi re-crossed his arms, grateful that the outcome hadn't ended differently, "and Kisame, is he alive?" If he wasn't that was going to upset his plans, inadvertently that brought him right back to Kabuto, however he brushed the rising anger aside, getting angry won't solve anything.

"Yeah," Deidara uttered, "he left on business for Pein."

"Good," Tobi hummed, telling Deidara that the raven knew what Kisame was doing, not that he was surprised since Tobi was the real leader but it meant that it was a legit, as he'd felt a tad suspicious when Kisame wouldn't come out and tell him. "Did you see the document?" He certainly hoped so; he wanted this put behind them.

Deidara nodded somewhat jerkily and quickly voiced in anticipation to another prompt, "it was true."

Tobi frowned a bit, "you thought Pein and I were lying?" his tone holding displeasure and quiet anger. He had no reason to lie about something like that, "I have been honest with you since I told you of my real identity." It wouldn't do well for their relationship if Deidara questioned whether he was being honest at times.

Deidara twitched a tad, shocked and realized with a start how his words would imply such, and hurriedly snapped to rectify, "No!"

Tobi cocked his head to the side in silent question despite the fact that Deidara was looking away from him.

"I simply meant that… that I was satisfied, un." Deidara spewed out quickly resisting the urge to look at Tobi; it was rather pointless to do so since he couldn't decipher what he was thinking with his mask on.

Tobi stared silently a few moments longer at the sitting form before allowing the tension in his shoulders to seep out, "good." If Deidara was satisfied he shouldn't have anything more to worry about… still doubt gnawed at him, so he simply silently hoped.

"No other problems?" Tobi questioned, seeing the slight tilt of the blond head elaborated, "No trouble getting in and out of the village?"

"Hmm, no," Deidara hummed before an unseen smirk swept across his face, "on the way out I left a parting gift."

Tobi was not the slightest bit surprised, "oh?" lightly urging the artist to tell him the details.

Deidara nodded – simply to himself as he stated aloud, smugness tingeing his tone, "I bombed a good portion of the village, hmm." He had been thoroughly pleased at having done so, he _still_ was quite pleased.

Tobi had figured as much – but this was good news, it meant the rock would be down a number of fighting shinobi and in need to rebuild which would be difficult since war had started. Speaking off – he had to tell his blond of that. But before he did…

"Come here," Tobi hummed, not demanding but his tone held insistence.

Deidara blinked, his head shifting to the side to gaze imploringly at the raven not too far from him, a part of him was mildly worried that Tobi was displeased at his parting gift, but why would he be? Ignoring his thoughts Deidara stood, least the other start demanding him to come – not that that wouldn't have yielded much save for pissing him off.

As soon as he was within arm distance Tobi unwound his crossed arms and with a black gloved hand gripped one of the artist's arms and tugged him into a tight almost suffocating embrace.

Deidara made an odd noise – that was most assuredly not a squeak, before relaxing into the warmth, itching to return the hug but refused to do so. Ever since agreeing to a relationship he'd gotten overly fluffy – for lack of a better word, he was an s ranked missing nin! Yet still… why did he find it more and more endearing? It made him _want_ to express back…

"Excellent," Tobi's deep yet riddled with gruff stated, bringing Deidara back from his thoughts, it took a few moments before his mind clicked to what Tobi was replying to and a small jolt of pride swirled inside and he could _swear _his face was glowing at the small compliment. Then his head was yanked back albeit gently by his hair and a mouth was one his, fierce and dominating. A moan slipped forth before he found himself kissing back with about equal force, his arms springing up to wrap around the taller male to grip the Akatsuki cloak, no longer caring about not expressing.

Sometime after Deidara found himself seated under a shaded tree near a small steady stream, not to terribly far from the cliff side he'd been perched at for a few hours. Tobi was standing with his arms at his sides near the water, gazing – so it looked with his mask back in place, at the running water and the little small stones that littered around and in the water.

"While you and Kisame went off to view that document, I went to Iron along with white Zetsu – he,"

"Kabuto?" Deidara interrupted, ignoring the small twitch of vexation from Tobi about rudely cutting in.

Tobi shook his head negatively, "that is not why I went, the five Kage's were gathering for a meeting at the summit – which is held in Iron." Tobi paused as he glanced at the sitting male adding, "That is probably why you ran into Onoki."

Deidara blinked his brow furrowing as he raised a leg up to rest his arm on it that sounded reasonable.

"Now as I was saying," Tobi huffed a little which caused a light smile to briefly alight Deidara's face, "Zetsu's white side accompanied me – he can split in two and work independently of each other."

Deidara's eyes widened a little at _that_, he'd never known that or that something of the sort would be possible. How interesting.

"While there I had a chat with them – ultimately, which was a part of the plan, the fourth war has begun."

Deidara blinked a few times rapidly, not sure his ears were hearing correctly, "war?" he echoed numbly. He'd never been in a war…

Tobi shifted his gaze from the water to the clearly stunned blond, "yes, us against them. They were not about to see things my way, war was inevitable."

"Oh," Deidara distantly said still having trouble wrapping his mind around and _accepting_ the situation.

"We have the power of the seven tailed beasts at our disposal, and despite them forming the Allied Nations we still have the advantage." And, Tobi added silently they had Kabuto's zombie jutsu – which would be helpful on the front lines, suitable cannon fodder.

All Deidara could do was nod, war was a scary thing, he'd only ever read about it, not something he'd ever want to be in – reading and being in were two different things. He wasn't naive enough to think that war would never happen in his life time – but in a way war wasn't all that different from fights, there would just be more numbers and he had an excellent way of dealing with large numbers. He shouldn't have too much difficulty then, for the most part.

He swallowed thickly, tightly an ache had developed in his throat and he angrily brushed at his bang that blocked part of his face, staring at the dirt covered ground.

"Right now," Tobi's voice brought Deidara back from his inner musings and he gladly took leave of them, "the Allied Nations will be scrambling to prepare, which gives us time. The word is out but war hasn't officially started just yet. And I've had longer to plan."

Deidara raised his glued gaze from the dirt to settle on the tall form of Tobi still standing by the water except now his arms were crossed and he was no longer looking his way. He barely managed a nod not sure _what_ to say. He was still quite alarmed – though not as he'd been initially, but the other side had far more numbers then they did even with the power of the tailed beasts (he was somewhat doubtful of them being more than enough – even though they were demons and therefore should be), how exactly would this work? Would each member be required to face a battalion on their own? Or would they face off in multiple fights that would eventually converge to the last all out battle?

Tobi glanced over at the far too silent blond, not that he was surprised, he'd just informed the younger male that the Fourth Shinobi War was going to take place. Deidara had never been in a war, let alone _seen_ one. Unlike he, who had been and seen plenty in his long life. He was adjusting – accepting, granted the artist had taken the news rather well, better then he was anticipating, in fact he was sure most of the stunned shock was simply that out of nowhere he'd delivered the news of the start of war. Eye roving over what he could see of the blond's face – which was pensive more than anything, decided it best to move on.

"In this war we will have the aid of – unfortunately, Kabuto."

The words had an instant effect; all dwelling thoughts of _how_ the war would proceed slipped off to a part of his mind to visit later, and with wide bewildered eyes gaped at Tobi. It took a few moments but Deidara was able to string a sentence together in a bit of a high tone, "wh-what happened to killing him?!"

Tobi sighed wearily, not at Deidara but at _Kabuto_. His arms tightened with repressed anger across his chest, he refused to give in to his rage, doing so would do him no good, only, no doubt cause him damage. As was prone to most anyone who let their emotions get the better of them, Deidara's fight with Sasuke was a prime example. "He," Tobi growled, glaring at the slowly rushing water, "blackmailed me!" For that was exactly what Kabuto had done. He'd found a _weakness_ and had _exploited _it. If it wasn't for the sole fact that Kabuto wanted – _thrived_ for Sasuke he was sure that the blasted morphed male would have already sold him out. And while he couldn't take Kabuto's word that he'd kept his revelations to himself, he'd have to for the time being and mostly he would since Kabuto had gone to such _effort_.

Deidara blinked rapidly, his jaw coming unhinged in his disbelief, Tobi had been... _blackmailed? _How in the _world_ had Kabuto managed that? "With what, un?" He asked at last. What had Kabuto used against Tobi? He could make all sorts of assumptions but refrained, he was sure Tobi would tell him.

Tobi scoffed lightly, which helped ease some of the tension and anger inside, "my real name." He turned towards the sitting form under the thick shaded tree, "only a few people know – granted it is not a forgotten name but everyone believes that I died against Harishima long ago." Tobi sighed heavily, "I underestimated his Intel network. He is also aware that I am the true leader of the Akatsuki."

Deidara's blue gaze fell from the tense form of the raven, part of him wondering why having the world know he was a_live_ was such a big deal and the other –

Deidara's face scrunched up, _long ago_ – how old was Tobi? But before he could ask Tobi spoke on, "for now he's assisting but he's **not** to be trusted. I don't want you near him if it can be helped," Tobi bore intently into the one visible blue orb, "understand?"

Deidara nodded with no hesitancy, as if he'd _want_ to be near the guy that had _helped _in experimenting on him when he'd been younger.

Tobi studied the blonds face for a few seconds longer before nodding to himself, satisfied.

As Tobi's lightly damaged mask shifted away from him Deidara frowned as another thought popped up, "wait," instantly having the raven's attention focused on him, "I thought you said you _didn't_ run into Kabuto in Iron?"

"I didn't," Tobi confirmed still in his deep, velvety voice, which he'd been using the whole time since meeting up with his blond. "I met him at my personal hideout – one unaware to Pein and Konan, and most others." Seeing as now _Kabuto_ knew about it. Stupid Intel..., perhaps Kabuto can speak to animals – none speaking ones? That would be possible; he looked like a snake so it stood to reason he could converse with animals – snakes at least. Though that was quite the troubling thought but one to pay heed to.

Deidara slouched a little, his arm dropping from its perch on his knee, _personal_? He shouldn't be surprised. He felt a little angry that he was _just_ now hearing of this but he'd also _hadn't_ asked and besides he knew _now._ As much as he was curious – practically itching to know he refrained from asking where it was. He was sure he'd find out – even possibly see it someday, besides it was _just_ a hideout.

"Oh," he uttered belatedly.

Tobi simply blinked, noting the let down posture and gathered the blond was disappointed in not knowing about it and of its location but there was no means – no _reason_ to tell Deidara at this point. And with Kabuto hiding out there he didn't _want_ Deidara there.

"There is one more thing," Tobi stated after a long filled silence of debate. He wasn't quite sure it was a good idea to tell Deidara but ever since finding out of Pein and Konan's plans he'd dwelled on the overall state of the organization. While he for _sure_ was going to have to kill Pein and Konan he was unsure as to what to do with the other members. After all by killing Pein and Konan he would _have_ to come out and tell the other members the truth – about the none existence of Tobi and that he was the_ real_ leader. Problem was everyone – save for Dei had joined and allied themselves with _Pein_, he was sure that they _would_ be loyal to Pein. In which case they would _not_ follow him which would mean he'd have to eliminate them as well, he after all couldn't allow them to roam free. While he doubted they would side with the Allied Nations they _could_ follow in Pein's and Konan's path, which would lead to time wasting and it would be better to catch them unawares.

Now while killing the other members was a setback – he'd had already planned on them dying by this point so him doing the honors was really not that damaging. And if he was lucky they would have the eight tails _before_ they perished – assuming he followed through with offing them as well, which he was leaning more towards.

Sighing Tobi ruffled his black, spiky hair, he'd_ have_ to tell the artist, it wasn't something he could or should keep secret. Not that he really expected Deidara to be _that_ against it – seeing as he had never wanted to join, and having Dei help would quicken things. He momentarily frowned before it melted away with a placid look; apparently he'd _already _made his decision.

Deidara raised an inquiring eyebrow, simply waiting, a light breeze struck up – having died down during their talking, lightly ruffling his hair which was flowing down his back on top of his cloak instead of inside where his long hair usually resided.

"And it can't be ignored." Tobi belatedly added; he strolled down the rivers bank a ways while crossing his arms across his chest. "Not too long ago I was made aware of suspicious planning."

Deidara perked up with quite a bit of interest, he leaned forward a little not that he really needed to, he could hear the older nin just fine despite the small distance he'd put between them. He silently urged Tobi on, as the other was taking his sweet time in relaying his thoughts, but he did not urge aloud, least Tobi change his mind and keep silent on the matter for another day.

"Pein and Konan," Deidara inwardly jolted at their names, having not expecting it to be concerning them and felt a sharp twisting unease sweep through him, almost making him feel nauseous. He shook off the ill feeling, getting back to the other's words, "have begun to conspire against me – how long I'm unsure but that matters little. The fact is I can't let their plans and intentions go unhindered."

Deidara frowned sharply, not quite certain as to _what_ Tobi meant, and voiced thus, "what do you mean?"

Tobi sighed lightly gazing into the water, ignoring the ever dimming light as darkness began to creep up, "They have been planning to kill me," Tobi uttered with hidden anger, the nerve of them! He just couldn't seem to get over the fact that they were planning and going to betray him.

Deidara went stiff, his eyes wide, and his mouth falling open in a stunned, skeptical gape, surely he was hearing things? But his wide blue gaze stared intently at the masked nin – who did not turn into _Tobi_, the one prone to being annoying and calling him _Senpai_, shouting 'just kidding!' And Deidara _knew_, deep inside of him that Tobi – Madara would not lie about something like this – he'd also stated earlier that he'd been honest since he'd learned the truth, why _would_ Tobi spin such a tale? It _had_ to be true!

But Konan? Granted he didn't know her that well or Pein for that matter but she had _often_ come to him urging him to talk to her if he _really _needed it; she'd help like Kisame him adjust to the Akatsuki. She'd even come to him to talk about _girl_ things much to his vexation but as she had always said 'he was the only one remotely feminine like' – which was not a compliment when your male, she deliberately left Itachi out but he was so emotionless Deidara couldn't see them talking about girl things.

Deidara's fist clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force and asked the one question he was most concerned about, "why?"

Tobi sighed heavily, wearily not _really_ wanting to have this discussion, "I don't know their _exact_ reasons, but we have never been completely mutual on everything. They are not aware that I know, Zetsu's the one who over heard them plotting. But they are bound to make their move soon, which is why I have brought it up – that and because of their betrayal the rest of the members will also be a concern."

Deidara's back went straight and he worked his mouth a few moments the sickening ill feeling from earlier threatening to rage again, "how so, hmm?" Was Tobi saying that they too were a _threat?_

"Most everyone joined out of interest and to some _degree_ loyalty – which I doubt was present from the start but after all these years I'm sure it's there, and between me – who they only know as _Tobi_ and Pein their bound to side with him seeing as they were under the assumption all these years that Pein was the true leader, who they have been working for and following all these years. Besides they have severed their main purpose." Tobi shook his head lightly as if he had trouble believing his own words before adding, "I cannot simply allow them to go free and while I can't say I'm certain completely asking them would ruin any chances of dealing with them easier – catching them unawares would be impossible once they were told of the situation."

Deidara sat there, under the shaded tree – that was hardly doing much shading now as the darkness of the night settled in, taking the last of the days light and a chilly windswept up doing more harm under the tree then if he stood alone under the night sky. His mind was swirling with thoughts and emotions – emotions he wouldn't have thought he possessed but he'd thought that to about the _feelings_ he had towards Tobi, trying to wrap his mind on _killing _not just Pein and Konan but the other members to. It also didn't help that he'd had quite a bit slammed onto his plate already – Kabuto's apparent aid, and worst of all _war,_ his mind wanted to lock up, choose to ignore, to not deal. It would be so much easier and simpler if this was only but a dream, but he knew it wasn't and he knew that ignoring the situation would not change anything or fix anything.

He gazed with shocked eyes at the darkly dressed nin who was not looking his way, keeping focus on the water, which had darken now that the light was gone and only the small glow of the stars and moon were out. A sudden numbness settled over him – while he didn't care for every member like Hidan, Konan and Kisame he _liked_ and to some very small degree cared about them. And Tobi wanted to _kill _them? Konan obviously had no chance but what about Kisame? Didn't he deserve a chance to choose?

"So what," Deidara strained out with demur after many minutes of tense silence, "you'll kill all of them, just like that?"

Tobi sighed and shifted his attention onto the quite clearly distraught blond, "we," he corrected, watching the artist jolt from disbelief but quickly continued stopping the sputtered protest from being voiced, "It's not a risk I'm willing to take."

Deidara stared blankly at the raven, a part of him not surprised at how willing – casual Tobi was about killing people he'd spent _years_ around, dealing with, _interacting_ with, after all they both were missing nins, criminals weren't supposed to get attached. And yet he felt a suffocating blackness swallow him, it was thick, left him aching – he shouldn't_ care_ about Konan or Kisame! And yet a part of him did and the other – he strained looking closer, deeper, and not to his shock found the glint of challenge. Taking on Kisame and Hidan and even Kakuzu left a tendril of thrill and excitement shooting through him and he trembled with anxious nerves to see how he faired – which he was fully confident that he would come out on top. The two opposing sides conflicted and he couldn't begin to decipher who was winning.

Deidara tilted his head down, dropping his gaze from Tobi gratefully, his bang bumping his face a few times before his hair settled and for a long moment – minutes even he stayed like that, lost in thought and emotions and eventually wondered if Tobi could be swayed from his decision but _knew_ how difficult it was to change Tobi's mind, it wasn't that the older nin was stubborn just that when he made a decision it was after viewing all the angles, the pros and cons which meant that it wasn't a hasty decision and he was certain and fully intended to follow through with his choice.

Tobi silently made his way over to the quiet blond and settled down beside him, just a thin space separating them, it was a lot to ask – not that he was asking, and feeling the blond had done enough thinking spoke up, "I will be handling Pein and Konan, that leaves Kisame, Hidan and Kakuzu to you." He angled his masked face down, eyeing the little of the blonds face that he could see, "will you be able to handle them?" He wasn't asking if Deidara was s_trong_ enough to face them and kill them he was asking if he _could_ go through with it.

Deidara tilted his head the other way, not wanting to _look_ at Tobi, he felt like shouting, felt like throwing bombs at Tobi and yet none of that happened and he silently cursed Tobi and himself. His mind – and disgustingly his heart was choosing Tobi over Kisame and Konan, he _knew_ the masked nins decision wasn't a hasty one and he clearly _felt_ that killing them would limit potential threats and how could he disagree? Everyone died sometime and a part of him too was not willing to take the chance that Kisame, Hidan and Kakuzu would betray Tobi to. Having Tobi _alive_ was far more important to him than any of the others and so with the slightest bit of reluctance – because he'd _rather_ not kill them, voiced with strain, "yeah," a small nod following after.

Tobi studied the blond silently and intently before reaching out and gripping the artist's chin firmly and not overly rough pulled the blonds face towards him till the younger male - who jerked a little but quickly stopped resisting, till he was looking at his slightly damaged mask. He studied the slightly feminine face deeply, and after a few moments of seeing no hesitancy with following through released his hold.

Deidara, having not expected the sudden release and so quickly had his head fall down due to no support before he straightened, his gaze deviating from the taller male besides him. His gaze falling to the ring – that all Akatsuki members wore though on different fingers, the blue color was a darker blue due to the dark and asked in quiet curiosity, "what about the rings? Are we destroying them?" He wasn't quite sure how to feel about destroying them – he'd had his ring since becoming a member. The rings weren't just a symbol they enabled Pein – the supposed leader to communicate with them and any member could be traced through the ring, which came in very handy. If they had other uses he was unaware but he felt that it would be best to keep them but it wasn't his call to make.

Tobi hummed thoughtfully, as if he'd not given a single thought to the outcome of the rings. And truthfully he hadn't there were far too many important and pressing things to worry about. He glanced down at the purple ring – that had once been Sasori's, that rested on his thumb in silent contemplation. He doubted the rings would serve much use down the road, especially once the members who wore them were dead. "We will keep ours and destroy the rest – that is if you _want_ to keep yours," he finally answered with a side glance to the younger male.

Deidara settled a light frown onto his ring, his hand bearing no ring lightly fingered the object before a wide smirk stretched across his face and he hummed out in a devious tone, "are you sure? The rings might come in handy hmm."

Tobi scoffed, his hands settling onto his folded knees, "I'm quite sure."

Deidara glanced to the raven who was looking out into the darkness, "fine, but I'll say I told you so if you're wrong!"

Tobi's head snapped to the smirking face and current help thinking with affection, _cheeky brat._ "I'm sure your clay should do the trick, once we have all of them you can give it a try." If the rings couldn't be destroyed by Deidara's clay then he would have to take care of them himself. The rings were specially made and designed to withstand deliberant and not so deliberate attacks – they were made to be indestructible.

Deidara blinked, his forehead furrowing but he simply nodded in consent and then all of a sudden strong, familiar arms were around him and he felt himself pulled forward and into Tobi's lap with a brilliant red flaring across his face. No more words were uttered for the rest of the night and as the warmth filtered into him and he relaxed into the raven Deidara allowed his mind to ignore all he had learned today and simply enjoyed the moment.

~88

A few days later Deidara found himself curled up in Tobi's side on his bed – that Tobi continuously shared instead of sleeping in his own. Pein had been informed of his mission and had stated emotionlessly yet rudely with stern that he didn't want to hear any more on it. Deidara had had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something _very_ unpleasant and suffer Pein's wrath – just because he knew Tobi was the real leader didn't mean Pein couldn't punish him (Tobi wouldn't be able to get him out of it without it looking suspicious). Granted Pein was usually softer on him but that didn't mean he wanted to try his luck all the time – in fact it was a miracle that Pein hadn't punished him when he'd demanded about his true origins.

He'd spent the last few days at the current hideout not doing much, when he wasn't working on his clay he was constantly thinking about what Tobi and he had talked about a few days prior. Tobi popped in and out doing who knows what – frankly he didn't care enough to ask, he already had much to think about anyways, though he could guess, it was probably war preparations. And his mind was so full that even as he laid pressed into Tobi and the wonderful warmth seeping through him was causing his eyes to flutter with tiredness he couldn't sleep. He wound an arm around the solid, firm body, gripping tightly to the material of the thick fitting shirt Tobi often wore and with a start like a light flaring up he had one thing stand out compared to the rest, one he was vastly, achingly curious to know.

He bit his lip in debate – not because he was afraid of waking the dumbass up, he was awake as an ungloved hand idly messed with strands of his long hair but because age could be a _sensitive _subject not that he was saying Tobi was _sensitive_ – far from it but when acting like Tobi he could be near impossible.

Still his curiosity and _need_ to know outweighed all else so he released his lip and broke the stillness of the room, "Tobi?"

"Hmm?" Tobi hummed quietly, shifting a little so that his unmasked face pressed farther into long blond hair, his warm breath caressing the artist's ear sending light shivers down the blond's spine.

"How old are you?" Deidara spewed out quickly before he could change his mind.

Tobi's hand froze amidst strands of hair and his eyes drifted open, lightly surprised and caught off guard. He hadn't expected the question for some time, granted he'd figured it'd pop up eventually and had only planned to tell the artist of his age should it be asked. He was afraid of how Deidara would take it. But he dared not lie and he dared not weasel around the question so with a light almost weary sigh, he informed the inquiring male, "a hundred and twenty," he said at length.

Deidara's jaw dropped his eyes opening only to be blinded by black, _a hundred and twenty_! He had thought Tobi was in his late twenty's early thirties! How was that possible, he looked so young! But he wouldn't _lie_... why would he? Usually when one lied about one's age it was to say they were _younger_ not older – not tremendously older!

"Really, un?" Deidara couldn't help but squeak out with skepticism.

"Yes," Tobi said without pause, he tangled his hand into the long hair and gently pulled that blonds face back so that their eyes could meet, "does that bother you?"

Deidara stared intently into the dark eyes of the older – apparently much older nin and after thinking about it for a few seconds shook his head, "no..." Age didn't matter to him; he just hadn't been expecting Tobi to be _so_ old. Granted that was Tobi's fault by always portraying himself as childish for years.

Tobi gazed imploringly into the blue orbs and found no lie and his shoulders relaxed and a light grin briefly graced his pale face and muttered with quiet relief, "good." And bent down and captured his blond's mouth roughly, dominating, ignoring the noise of protest that quickly turned into a moan.

Once his mouth was released and his breath caught Deidara asked with wonder, "how do you look so young?" Looking at Kakuzu he well basically he was a zombie – he was in his nineties, Deidara had _thought_ he was the oldest in the organization, not to mention the world but clearly not, ignoring the strand of saliva inching its way down his chin.

Tobi, with a start realized incredulously that he had _forgotten _to tell Deidara that he was immortal; lightly he chuckled earning a queer look which he ignored and updated the artist, "I'm immortal – I age _very_ slowly." If at all Tobi added silently.

Deidara jolted shock rippling through him like a wave crashing into him and he gaped, eyes gazing strongly into the others eyes, only to find them shining with truth and suddenly he felt _faint_, and he was sure that if he had been standing his legs would have given way.

Tobi chuckled deeply at the others expression, finding it far to adorable, a strong urge rising up to kiss the hell out of his blond but he refrained – for now as he added, knowing that once Deidara could get his mouth working he'd ask, "I obtained the immortal sharingan long ago."

Deidara's eyes fell from the others and he stared unseeingly at the pale smooth skin, _immortal?_ Th-that meant that Tobi couldn't _die_... right? And while apart of him was immensely relived, feeling like a massive weight had just lifted from his shoulders, the other part felt shaken and unsettled, because he _could_ _die_ and he _could age_, so why did Tobi want to be with him? Why did someone so much older have any interest in him?

Did knowing Tobi's true age effect anything? Other then the whole dying and aging thing?

Deidara was barely aware of his fingers digging deeper into the material of Tobi's shirt as he frowned, and after several minutes decided, no, it didn't change anything – at least not about how he felt and Tobi felt. After all if his eventual death and aging bothered Tobi, he wouldn't have been so insistent about doing this relationship. So therefore he wasn't going to be bothered about it.

Curiosity swelled then and he wondered how it worked, was Tobi's immortality like Hidan's? He hoped not – Hidan's was faulty and relied on his religion. And if a limb was severed he had to have them stitched back on usually by Kakuzu otherwise he was useless. What good was an immortal man who couldn't move when his limbs were disemboweled? He wasn't, but then Tobi was also a lot more capable and stronger then Hidan.

"How does it work, un?" Deidara unintentionally voiced still rather dazed but his tone clearly holding childlike curiosity.

Tobi didn't immediately reply but when he did his answer was far from desirable, "I'll tell you some other time." His tone held finality which meant that no matter what Deidara did or said Tobi wouldn't budge.

Deidara pouted, thoroughly disappointed, "well is it like Hidan's?" he couldn't help but push, if Tobi wouldn't tell him exactly then he at least wanted to know if it was similar to Hidan's. And he was sure that was hardly a big deal to tell him.

Tobi frowned lightly, but not at all surprised at Deidara pushing the subject but since he wasn't asking about his _exactly_ just whether it related to Hidan's he had no problem in telling the artist right now, "no, it's not and no religion is involved." His tone holding the barest of warnings though.

Deidara made an odd noise sounding like a thoughtful hum and quelled any farther questions, knowing when to draw the line and pressed his face into Tobi's well defined chest. Yet still sleep remained irritatingly out of his grasp and asked quietly almost with subdue, "so when are you dealing with Konan and Pein?" After all Tobi had only _told _him of his intentions not when things were supposed to be done.

"Shortly," Tobi paused at the small jolt from the artist but he didn't otherwise acknowledge it, "Konan left earlier, which means their ready."

Deidara opened his mouth with intentions to ask _how_ Konan leaving was a sign that they were ready only to have Tobi answer as if he'd read his mind, "Konan hardly _ever_ leaves Pein's side and when she does it's for personal reasons." which meant all the times she had been away from Pein had been her gathering the needed things for their plan and then going about setting it up.

"Oh," Deidara uttered distantly, partially wishing he hadn't asked.

"You'll stay here, and wait till all the members are here and take care of them – unless you feel handling them individually would be easier." Tobi stated firmly, trying to make sure his point on things was for sure coming across. He felt that doing the members one at a time would waste time as Deidara could just use a strong, powerful explosion and off them before they realized anything but he had a funny almost ironic feeling that Deidara would prefer to face them. He had just better not get himself killed as once the others understood Deidara was serious they _wouldn't_ hold back.

"Understand?" Tobi asked at length when Deidara didn't acknowledge his words. He trailed his ungloved hand into long hair and lightly, soothingly ran his fingers through.

Deidara breathed lightly his breath puffing into the dark shirt, a large part of him wanted to argue to try and change the raven's mind despite his earlier convictions. Tobi's _immortal_, so then why kill them? Konan and Pein he could understand – they were plotting to kill him, planned to go through with it, but the others weren't.

"Deidara,"

Deidara swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry as the demanding tone washed over him. For a single, fleeting moment he felt as if he was back to when he first learned of Madara and been afraid – that's how commanding he'd just sounded. He clenched his eyes shut, despite his immortality Tobi was still more important to him and so he would follow through at the behest of Tobi because that is what he wanted. So he uttered albeit shakily but with no hesitancy, "y-yes."

Tobi nodded hearing the tone, "good." It was well to know that Deidara would do as told without too much hesitation since it could cost him if he wasn't fully prepared to go in and kill them. But despite the shaky quality to the blonds tone he knew Deidara wouldn't let any of his feelings effect what needed to be done – at least for Hidan and Kakuzu, Tobi was partially sure that there would be some hesitation about eliminating the mist nin.

Tobi snaked his arm downwards, away from the long blond hair and wound his arm tightly and slightly possessively around the thin male pulling him closer if at all possible before burring his face back into Deidara's hair, uttering lightly, "sleep well," as it would do no good for Deidara to remain tired when shortly they both would be dealing with their previous companions.

Deidara made a small annoyed noise – mostly about how tightly Tobi was holding him, before shifting around a bit till he was snuggly and this time when he closed his eyes and willed to sleep, sleep came to him.

~End chapter

Gasp! Will this be the end of the other members!?

Okay, I appreciate all those who reviewed! I got, I believe the same amount of reviews in a much shorter time frame that usually take four months to get the same. So it's kind of sad, considering the amount of hits I get. Reviews are one of the main reasons I post (I officially started this for myself then decided to share because there just isn't enough of these two), so please with sugar on top can we try and get a little more?

Posted: 5/18/14


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

Look at this an update in only a little over a month : )

Anonymous Reviewer Yup – Thanks for reviewing! Glad you adore this story : ).

Anonymous Reviewer Kat – Thanks for taking the time to leave a review! Glad that taking a chance worked out : ) I know!

Anonymous Reviewer SYA – Thanks for reviewing! Yes, sad. Maybe it won't be all of them. Sasori – uh who knows? It would be interesting to have a jealous Madara. Hopefully whatever happens isn't a disappointment.

Anonymous Reviewer Guest – Thanks for reviewing : )

I appreciate all who reviewed!

Note: I wrote a good portion of this months ago. If there is any grammar issues (and without a beta there probably is – which I apologize for,) feel free to tell me and if you can it would be nice if you could give a general area to.

2nd note: Man I really wanted to do some more one-shots or even a small muti story now that I am on summer break but I have this blasted cough that just won't go away and a sore throat that came back, argh.

Chapter 23 – Exploding confrontation!

Kisame huffed wearily as the hideout became visible and a grateful sigh escaped him. It had been over a month or so since he'd parted ways from Deidara and made his way to the snowy land of Iron. If Hidan and Kakuzu had been successful in their attack and had secured the eight tails then his job was moot but he soon discovered that they had failed spectacularly and thus his job came into play, which was to infiltrate through his sharkskin and gather Intel on Cloud. And this was possible with the help of white Zetsu they had successfully duped the Cloud nins and he now had the harder part to take care of.

All was going good until till the nine-tails brat, who had been sent to the eight tails for training and safe keeping, _sensed_ him. Such a thing _shouldn't_ have been possible and yet because the kid had tapped into the Kyuubi – which is the _only_ reason the kid could sense anyways, learned of his presence. It was utterly ridiculous, and it _wouldn't _have happened if it wasn't for the nine-tails though he suspected the nine-tails was far from pleased with allowing the kid free reign of his chakra.

Alas he'd been forced to emerge and drawn into a very much unwanted fight if it wasn't for the fact his body was fish like his small opportunity of escaping into the water – the ocean would have been futile. But he was injured, no thanks from the man in green, who irritatingly almost creamed him, thankfully he'd gotten out of there, barely as it was but he was in one piece and the scroll containing the info in his hand. He hadn't had it on him when he'd made his escape, a shark carrying it between its sharp, razor teeth swam up to him. Obviously the idiot's had opened the scroll which triggered the trap and boxed them each in their own individual water prism with a shark. If he was lucky some of them would die but he wasn't too optimistic.

He felt like murdering Pein though – sneaking missions were not his forte and he didn't like the fact that he'd had no backup and especially since he's lost sharkskin to that infernal eight tails! But since he was alive he supposed it was rather moot to give Pein a piece of his mind. All it would really do was piss the man off.

He shook his head to dispel his thoughts as he entered the hideout, first he'd see Pein and give him a debriefing and the scroll then he'd clean up. As he passed by an open room, it was the living room so there was no door, Hidan's loud obnoxious voice snapped from where he was sitting on the floor near the couch, the television flickering, "the fuck happened to you!," he'd happen to turn around in time to see Kisame shuffle pass the door way, shirtless and sporting numerous cuts and coated in dry blood. (Though the water had washed much of the blood)

Kisame back tracked just enough to shove his hand in the open doorway and give Hidan the middle finger, if the two zombie pair hadn't failed in capturing the eight tails then he wouldn't be in this state. And to be plain, it was ultra sad that the two of them had failed against the eight tails. He didn't know how it all went down and he didn't need to, the only thing he was interested in was that they had failed and he'd been forced to fall onto plan B, which as he stated earlier was to infiltrate and gather Intel. So Hidan had no real cause to shout at him in such a degrading tone. Of course that was just Hidan's way but he simply was _not_ in the mood to deal with him.

As he continued down the lightly lit corridor he ignored the stream of curses aimed at him his sole priority was to see Pein and be done with it as quick as possible. He knew Pein wasn't going to be thrilled that he'd had to bail early but it wasn't like he hadn't gotten plenty of information. What he knew would appeal to Pein and most likely limit Pein's wrath was the fact that the nine-tails brat's location and his new ability. Having that knowledge was unparalleled. Knowing a head of time gave them the chance to plan ahead, the kid would lose the advantage – however slight it would have been.

Finally Kisame rounded the corner to a small stretch riddled with little light that ended with a door, the door that lead to Pein's office. Upon reaching the closed door he raised an arm riddled with cuts and knocked, the sound echoing unusually loud but he paid it no heed. When only silence greeted him, he knocked several more times and waited, after a few minutes had passed and not a sound reached his ears – which was unusual as usually the first knock was all that was needed, and figuring that either Pein was fast asleep or not present twisted the knob and unceremoniously swung the door open, not caring to do it politely.

He peered in as he stood in the now open doorway, his beady eyes surveying the room and discovered the room empty. With a tired sigh, he ran a hand over his face and didn't need to check the other room, the door behind the desk to the left a little, to know that it too was empty, for if it wasn't Pein would have answered.

Now thoroughly annoyed, since if he had any inkling to both Pein and Konan – though Konan could be around here somewhere, though was not likely as she was often glued to Pein's side, being gone he would have cleaned up first. With an irritated noise he strode the short distance to the wooden desk, lightly littered with unfinished papers and slammed the scroll with more force then he meant onto the desk which caused the papers to shift from their current spot but luckily nothing fell off. He roved his beady eyes swiftly over the now messy desk in search of a blank piece of paper and picked up the only writing utensil he could see. Once he had the blank paper in hand he quickly scrawled a brief summary of the events that had taken place on his infiltration mission and left it on top, in as plain a sight as possible – near the scroll and hurried out to tend to his wounds.

~88

Deidara rubbed at his eyes furiously, feeling like water was building up but there was only an itching feeling, probably due to the numerous times he'd rubbed his eyes since he'd spotted Kisame, or maybe he was coming down with something. The moment he'd seen the mist nin shuffling towards the hideout from his perched spot in a leafy tree, the thought of what he had to do now washed over him in such bulk that he wished dearly that he was sleeping or imagining that Kisame had returned.

No matter what he said to Tobi, inklings of hesitation was irritatingly present and he was finding it harder to steal his nerves again – that he had managed over the time he'd waited for all three to be at the hideout; now that Kisame was _actually_ here. He let loose a deep breath, calming his racing heart which was going so fast from nerves and excitement. It wouldn't do well to wait too long, Kisame was in poor state, so it wouldn't be a good idea to wait for a new day, and lucky for him Kisame appeared to be missing shark skin, now he wouldn't have to worry about the sword draining his chakra. What he _really_ had to worry about was Kakuzu and from Hidan, he just had to make sure that the religion freak didn't get any of his blood.

With another deep sigh, he straightened, a hand slamming into one of his clay pouches, which he had stocked full and went to work. He had decided that luring them from the hideout would make things easier; the last thing he wanted was to get caught stuck on the ground with no easy way into the air, and if he was lucky his initial attack would critically injure or kill one of them. He had debated long and hard about Tobi's suggestion about setting an explosion off that would kill them immediately, but he felt that that was _wrong_. He wanted them to _have _a chance and he wanted to prove that he could kill all three of them without _help_! Lately he'd required help in his fights, which was plainly ridiculous! He was a missing nin and an S ranked one at that! And yet with those blasted, _disgusting_ Cloud nins some time back, Tobi had had to butt in an save him and Sasuke – though he hadn't _needed_ to be saved and with Onoki, Kisame had. Killing three members of the Akatsuki all on his own would make up for his past failures! It was a good thing Tobi had forced him to improve his taijutsu, it gave him the element of surprise as none but Kisame would expect him to use it and Tobi had filled him in on all the jutsu's the others were capable of doing as it had been imperative otherwise he'd have to sorely go off of what he knew, which wasn't much. And he had the best plan set up – it wasn't his style to plan ahead but he'd had the time and felt it would be costly not to go in prepared.

With a wide maniac grin that showed none of his misgivings on the whole affair flung his arm out and let loose numerous birds and a few moments later had several tiny, almost microscopic insects swarm over the tree he was in. Now all he felt was a burning desire to see his magnificent explosions in action.

~88

Kisame gave a low irritated groan as he sank down onto the old, decaying couch. The stuffing was falling out in a few places which had been sowed shut by Kakuzu to make it last longer, while the really old stitched ones were wearing and had white stuffing inching through. There were numerous stains littering the cushions, primarily where one sat but there was one massive red stain on the back of the coach where Hidan had settled against after one of his daily rituals and bled. It was scrubbed and scrubbed but blood was difficult to get out and it was _only_ on the back where no one would actually be sitting. All in all it was rare to find anyone willing to sit on the falling apart coach but Kisame was not to keen on sitting on the hard, stone floor after his mission.

Hidan glanced over from where he was still seated on the floor, his red scythe resting across his lap and shirtless as always a crude grin etching onto his face as he eyed the exhausted mist nin, "I don't think I've fucking ever seen you in such a fucking state."

"Shut up," Kisame growled his head leaning against the back of the couch, which because of the lost stuffing his head had sagged and would result in an uncomfortable knick in his neck later.

Hidan gripped tightly to his scythe as a frown stole his smirk but just as he went to tell the shark nin off Kakuzu entered the room, who seemed to read his mind – or just knew him so well, sent him a scathing look that instantly had the words dying in his throat. He could always get Kisame later since ticking of his green eyed partner usually ended in him being stabbed or losing an arm and he would have to wait till Kakuzu was in the mood to stitch him back together.

Kisame opened his eyes, staring at Kakuzu upside down and to flaccid to move to face him properly gruffly asked, "Do you know when Pein will be back?" He was far more curious to know _where_ Pein had gotten off to but he didn't usually inform any of the members of such things. He should have been here… but granted he'd gotten back earlier than planned…

Kakuzu settled his green gaze on the weary mist nin intending to answer to the best of his ability but didn't get the chance as suddenly without warning the room imploded. A loud explosion swallowed up the living room, dust wafting up.

"The Hell!" Hidan cursed from somewhere in the thick smoke alerting the other two that the explosion hadn't damaged his voice box. With ringing ears Kisame coughed as he rose to a battle ready position, a small gash on his forehead but otherwise uninjured from the explosion.

"Did fuckers find this fucking place?" Hidan shouted to no one in particular, his long red scythe held out in front of him as his eyes scanned uselessly around the dust unable to penetrate through to see any attackers.

Kisame raised a cloaked hand to his face to help stop from inhaling the smoke and asked gruffly, "Is Dei here?" He'd parted ways from the artist before arriving at the base but the blond _should_ be here unless he'd gotten another mission since he'd been gone.

"Fucking blondie!" Hidan cursed which did not answer the question.

Kakuzu grunted, "Shut up Hidan." He stood in the door way peering down the corridor in both directions before answering the shark nin's question, "yeah, haven't seen much of him but I know he's around here somewhere."

Kisame made a small hum noise to let the older nin know he'd heard and shuffled towards the direction he'd heard him speak. "Anything?" He didn't feel anyone… any enemies.

"No," Kakuzu uttered.

"Hey!" Kisame snapped as Hidan shoved him to the side and went to do the same to his partner only to have the older nin step aside. As Hidan entered the corridor his arm was grabbed, "don't be carless." He didn't know _what_ they were dealing with but an uncomfortable twinge had settled in his stomach and was only growing worse. He had a bad feeling and he didn't like it.

Hidan scoffed, ripping his arm free and tore over to the gaping hole in the wall, bright light streamed into the ruined hideout, the dust quickly settling as it filtered out. "All right fuckers come out!"

Both Kisame and Kakuzu groaned in irritation, oh yes alert whoever it was that at least _someone_ was alive. Granted they hadn't been quiet at all but shouting deliberately and alerting that they were _alive _was stupid when they could have had the advantage. Not many survived an explosion, chances were that whoever was behind the attack wouldn't be expecting anyone to still be alive but now that Hidan had shouted they'd lost the chance to plan something and launch a surprise attack.

With an annoyed grunt Kakuzu stepped through the hole and into the bright sun, no sense in standing in the Hideout and be easy marks. Hidan whipped past his older partner and glanced to and fro rapidly trying to catch sight of someone, anyone. He raised his scythe, "come out fucker! We know your there!"

Up in a high tree Deidara watched the proceedings, still as he could be. An annoyed frown etched on his face, he wasn't _that_ surprised that none of them had died but _still!_ Guess he shouldn't have held back… but he hadn't wanted to put too much power into his bomb and risk killing them all. He _wanted _to fight them.

He pressed farther into the tree bark as he saw the three of them huddle close, from this height he couldn't hear what they were saying even as he strained his ear. The leaves and branches of the tree did well to conceal him from view; it was one of the thickest among the area which is why he'd settled in this one. Slowly carefully he raised his hand to form his detonation seal, as a few birds that were flying about swopped down to the three nins and exploded.

"Fuck!" Hidan not so elegantly cursed as all three flung back. Tching Hidan whipped around after a signal from Kakuzu and disappeared into the trees.

Kisame gnashed his teeth as he ripped of his battered cloak, which had been brand knew just a few hours ago. He glanced over his bloodied arm, which had not been so fortunate in the last explosion and sorely wished he hadn't lost his sword, shark skin, what rotten timing!

Kakuzu calmly scanned the area, his shoulders tense but otherwise he stood as if he was unprepared.

Deidara swallowed, sweat inching down the side of his face as Hidan vanished from view and neither Kakuzu or Kisame made any move to find his location. Surely they weren't just going to stand there? And what about –

His musing was abruptly derailed as a swooshing noise reached his ears and he whipped around with slightly wide eyes as a sharp object imbedded into the tree besides his face.

_How the hell!_

"The fuck Dei!?" Hidan shouted as he stood in front of the blond his scythe inches from the others face – a good thing he'd moved or he might have been nailed through the head.

Deidara's fingers twitched, "what hmm?" he hoped that he could play this off, Hidan was _dense_ after all.

"Don't _what_ me you fucking pussy!" His violet eyes narrowed to slits and he asked in a deathly low voice, one Deidara had never heard from the Jashin worshiper before, "were you _seriously_ throwing bombs at _us?"_

Deidara stared unwaveringly into Hidan's eyes, inwardly knowing that he wouldn't be able to pretend he hadn't done anything of the sort. _They knew_ it was him. He pressed his mouth in a thin line, but before he could voice anything – or blatantly _lie_ Hidan sent a hard punch to the side of his face and though prepared the force sent him off the tree. He hit quite a bit of branches on his way down before managing to stop his decent; luckily he was wearing a new coat otherwise instead of his coat taking the blunt of the damage his skin would.

"Dei…?" Kisame uttered sounding stupefied.

Deidara didn't turn to face the shark nin, keeping his eyes on Hidan who had removed his red scythe from the tree and was standing firm, yet looking ready to jump.

"Were you really _bombing _us?" Kisame asked with strain.

Kakuzu scoffed, as he gazed upwards, his green eyes locked on the two up a good ways in the tree, "he was."

Kisame turned bewildered eyes to the older male besides him asking incredulously, "what makes you so sure!?"

Kakuzu muttered under his breath and much to Kisame's ire couldn't make out the words despite their closeness, "he's the only other person here _besides_ us and it's clear that no outside ninja found this place. After all they wouldn't just blow up part of the hideout and then take off," he snorted interrupting his speech, "and that second hit was _after_ Hidan shouted and made clear his position and who it was. And that last bomb could only come from _one_ person – birds made of clay and if Deidara was responsible for the second then he was most likely responsible for the first."

Kisame stared dumbfounded at Kakuzu, having a hard time believing his words.

Deidara scoffed, "how can you be so sure? How do you know that it wasn't _really_ an enemy nin un?" Really he understood that Kakuzu had caught sight of his clay birds before they had detonated and thus was able to put the pieces together. It certainly didn't help that no one else was clearly in the area, so he couldn't say he was aiming for _them_. So really his words were merely to stall for time, it was clear that Kakuzu had signaled Hidan to his position, which also meant that he would be anticipating where he would move and then there was Kisame. Hmm… it would be best to get in the air, something that they would be sure to try and prevent as they would be screwed should he get in the air. Why hadn't he gotten on a bird to start with? It would have made things easier but also gotten him sighted faster.

"Fucking can it!" Hidan snapped, preparing to leap and attack the fucking blond.

"No, wait!" Kisame shouted, instantly earning a scowl from Hidan but he halted movement.

"Dei!"

Sighing Deidara turned, his bang colliding with his cheek as his head stilled in motion, once he could see the mist nin out of the corner of his eye he grunted, "what?"

Kisame growled at the response but snapped bitingly, "what's going on? Why did you throw bombs at us?"

Deidara opened his mouth to retort, not answer but was beat by Hidan who chortled loudly, "The fuck fish face! And here Kakuzu is always harping on me being the fucking dense one!"

Kisame's forehead knitted and he shook his head as if he _knew_ but was refusing to acknowledge it and accept it.

"He was… _is_ trying to kill us." Kakuzu muttered coldly.

Kisame stumbled as he took a step towards the pair in the tree, "n-no that… Dei?"

Deidara turned enough to catch Kisame's eyes and whatever the mist nin saw caused his body to tense and his eyes to darken.

"It's not that fucking of a surprise is it?" Hidan hedged. "After all fucking blondie never wanted to fucking join!"

Kakuzu nodded lightly, "I never thought this would happen – not for many years, when I _was_ expecting something like this I was expecting it to happen shortly after you joined or a year a two later; not now, not after all these _years."_

"Why Dei?" Kisame uttered, "Were you planning this all these years? Did we – did I mean _nothing?"_ cold anger slowly rising.

Deidara scowled a little unnerved at how Kisame was handling this but it did in a way seem plausible, he'd lost Itachi and they had been pretty close. So to find him trying to kill Hidan and Kakuzu as well as himself Kisame must just be at the breaking point. Or it was simply the depression talking.

"I think you've gone _soft_," he stressed, "we're S ranked ninja! Among a group like us this should be expected at all times hmm!"

Kisame stared intently at the unyielding, unreadable face and his eyes harden farther, "do you intend to continue?" It was clear the artist _had_ meant to kill them but he did not wish to fight the blond but he would if he was adamant with his intentions.

Deidara blinked slowly, almost sluggishly, "are you saying I shouldn't defend myself? Or are you saying that you'll let me go?"

"Go? Hah!" Hidan shouted amused.

"If you wanted to get away, you had ample time to do so. And you could have done so without trying to kill us." Kakuzu wisely muttered.

"If I had _just left_, you would have _tracked_ me." Deidara hummed out sternly. "Killing you now means I won't have to worry about being found one day."

Kakuzu raised his arms, "I find that hard to believe." If Deidara was truly trying to kill them because he was worried about being tracked or found one day he would have obliterated the Hideout not sent just a bomb with enough power to destroy the living room. Deidara _had_ the power and the ability to do so. No there was something else to this. But he doubted the blond would be willing to tell them, he after all had yet to be very forthcoming.

Deidara raised an eyebrow but chose not to acknowledge the green eyed males words.

Kisame grunted, "Since it's clear that you aren't going to surrender then-"

Hidan yelled interrupting the shark nin, "fucking pussie! You shall die!"

Kisame briefly closed his eyes, should a member try to leave they were to be re-captured and Pein would deal with them but there had been a few cases where they had simply been killed. But he knew Pein had a soft spot for Dei as did most everyone but Deidara had _tried_ to kill them and he knew that Kakuzu and Hidan would not let their soft spot for the kid effect them over something like this, but what about Pein? Did they go ahead and kill Deidara without Pein's consent? Deidara _wasn't_ just a simple member, Pein had gone to a lot of trouble to get the kid to join and he was sure that Pein despite what had just transpired wouldn't warrant Deidara being killed at least without Pein having a word with the artist.

"What about Pein?" Kisame voiced his thoughts to the grass nin.

Kakuzu blinked as if the thought hadn't occurred to him and then he sighed heavily, "Hidan!" his tone reprimanding, and apparently that was enough for Hidan to interpret for he sent a nasty snarl at his partner and re-adjusted his hold on his scythe.

Deidara quickly viewed all his options before ducking the swing of Hidan's scythe and shot upward as going down would mean going straight into Kakuzu and Kisame. He snaked another hand into his clay pouch – one had already scooped up clay just before Hidan's first attack, and quickly formed almost a dozen birds, their wings sleek giving them the ability to fly faster and whipped his hand out behind him sending them in Hidan's direction who was perusing him with shouted curses.

As they exploded he worked quickly as possible to get a bird in the air for later, with his other hand he pulled out a few kuni and shot them to the idle yet battle ready nin on the forest floor their eyes tracking his every movement.

He ducked another swing from Hidan as he emerged from the smoke and snapped a fisted hand into the other's jaw knocking him back a few paces and almost sending him slipping off the tree branch.

Hidan let out a sharp noise more from surprise then pain; he hadn't been expecting blondie to do _any_ taijutsu unless he was backed into a corner and had no more clay left.

Deidara swung his diverted attention back to see that both Kisame and Kakuzu had obviously avoided the few Kuni shot their way yet remained rooted to the ground, annoyance settled in as he was _trying_ to pull one of them at least into a fight. Hidan's immortality was a problem and his intended jutsu would no doubt be least effective or all together useless. He was hesitant to go for him first, especially if it failed seeing as then he'd have a harder if not impossible chance of doing it to Kisame or Kakuzu.

Grunting lowly he whipped out another Kuni just as his mouth hand spit out the clay and he swiftly molded it into an owl bird only to curse a moment later as he nearly got skinned on Hidan's scythe and pushed more energy into his legs, with a burst of speed he gained a few paces and formed his bird and had it take flight. He'd have his bird fly around and hopefully he'd be forgotten by the three. Then he deliberately halted, a light chuckle escaping him as Hidan vaulted past him, having not been expecting his sudden abrupt stop. He shot his free hand, the one that wasn't holding the kuni into his bag and sucked up some more clay and twisted around and propelled off the tree branch and headed straight for Kakuzu – out of the two on the ground he was the more dangerous opponent, (Kisame was missing his trademark sword and was rather low on energy). With the kuni held in front and eyes narrowed sharply Deidara sped towards the grass nin, as he closed in the other just stood there yet Deidara knew that Kakuzu was going to do something, he just didn't know what.

As he got within swiping reach Kakuzu whipped an arm up and it detached and shot at him with surprising speed, while being aware of this jutsu – having even _seen_ it before he was moving in such a way that he couldn't easily avoid the hit, seeing as he was in mid air. With an inward curse he braced for impact and not a second later, Kakuzu's hand grasped hold of his shoulder and sent him backwards before he was jerked downwards into the ground with a hard thud.

Groaning Deidara quickly snapped the hand with the kuni up and sliced through the thread, now free he pulled his face from the dirt, coughing once to expel the unappealing contents and zipped to the side as his senses flared.

A loud 'clink' reached his ears and he didn't need to turn around to know that Hidan's scythe had imbedded into the hard, resisting earth. Using this chance he tossed the kuni still in his hand, luckily he hadn't dropped it on his unscheduled impact towards Hidan.

The zealot had both hands wrapped firmly around his weapon and was in the process of removing it when the kuni came speeding towards him, his head jerked towards the zipping noise and could only watch as the single kuni grazed one of his arms before flying off into the forest.

"_Nice_ aim," Hidan oozed with sarcasm, a cock eating grin stretched wide on his face.

Deidara merely stared at the zombie male for a fraction of a second but unfortunately that was one second to long as a strong, firm fist connected to his cheek that knocked him to the ground and in a heap he lay with Kisame towering over him.

Deidara raised his head, his bang sliding across his face and partially blocking his other eye and with a quick, irritated shake sent the hair back towards their usual spot.

"Tell me Dei," Kisame snapped out demandingly, "were you all these _years_ planning this?" He didn't know quite what to think or feel if it was true that Deidara had been secretly scheming this very day for years. All the time they chatted, hung out, showed _concern_ for the young artist and to have Dei all the while planning to betray them to sit there and _laugh _behind their backs, there was no words he could articulate to _express_…

Deidara met Kisame's cold gaze yet could see hidden far in those beady depths aching despair and his heart gave an unpleasant, unneeded twinge. _Shut up!_ Deidara shouted inwardly, think of Tobi! He frantically repeated, Tobi was far more important then Kisame! Tobi made him _feel_, did things to him he had a hard time grasping… Tobi made him_ feel_ safe and needed. Tobi truly _cared_ about him, he'd been there longer then Kisame, he just hadn't seen it. He didn't feel the things he did for Tobi for Kisame… With new resolve Deidara stared with adamant calm yet decided to be honest, after all Kisame _deserved_ that much at least, they _had_ been friends – as close to the concept as they could get being who they are. He wasn't deluded enough to think they were friends any more, how could they? He was gunning to kill the mist nin, if Kisame survived this he would be foolish to not sever the bonds that they had. But he knew Kisame wasn't foolish enough to consider him a friend anymore. No, he'd severed the string the second it'd been confirmed he was trying to kill the mist nin. Kisame, as prone to any one wasn't one to forgive easily, especially over something like this.

"No," Deidara uttered firmly with resolute, "in the beginning I did – plan to leave I mean, but not since then. I often fantasized obliterating the hideout and taking anyone and everyone with it but I somewhere along the way gave up that idea hmm."

Kisame stared intensely into the azure depths and could only see raw honesty; it was difficult to describe the amount of relief that swirled through him that everything between them hadn't meant _nothing._"Then _why,_ Dei?" he uttered completely flummoxed.

Deidara found he couldn't hold the mist nins sharp gaze and his eyes fell, even if he _did_ tell Kisame and the others why he was doing this, chances are they wouldn't believe him. Trying to get them to _believe _that there was more to Tobi then he portrayed when they had never s_een_ anything to say otherwise would be like trying to say that the sky was really the ground. To them it was sheer absurdity, they wouldn't _believe_ that the 'good boy' Tobi was the reason he was willing to kill them. "Does it _really_ matter?"

Kisame frowned, intending to speak but another beat him to it, "no, it doesn't." Kakuzu uttered, a hand planted on his hip.

Deidara wearily stood, hyper aware of Kisame and Kakuzu's close proximity and he wasn't _quite_ sure where Hidan was, he wasn't uttering a peep or making any noise which was vastly unusual.

Kisame glanced briefly at Kakuzu and warned, "He's gotten better at taijutsu."

Deidara inwardly cursed that little tidbit, granted Kakuzu had _seen_ him hit Hidan but still; watching Kakuzu's green eyes widened slightly, his sole outward surprise over the new information.

Simultaneously the two shifted, obviously done with chatting and shot forward, Deidara had the barest of minds to brace himself as he had been far more focused on _trying_ to locate Hidan and get out of reach. He blocked the swift punches as best as he was able and nearly staggering when Kisame managed to clip him on the leg and with an inward curse had a small momentary diversion as he tried to stabilize his balance, luckily he managed to do so before being knocked to the ground or contained. He retaliated, aiming more at Kakuzu then Kisame as he was more of a concern.

The three of them went at it, two on one each trying to knock and disable someone with just taijutsu. Deidara knew, as sweat trickled down his brow that neither Kisame or Kakuzu would remain from using jutsu's for long. As he took a hard punch to his arm something clawed at his attention and not giving it a farther thought bolted to the side narrowly avoiding Hidan's wide swing.

"Fucking blondie! Stay put!"

Deidara scoffed and muttered something that sounded like 'yeah right.'

"We're _not_ trying to _kill_ him Hidan!" Kisame said with exasperation.

Hidan scowled, his eyes knitting to slits as he shouted beseechingly, "and _why_ the hell not! The fucking pussie is! Who _cares_ what fucking Pein says – he's not even here!"

"Do you _want_ to be on the end of Pein's wrath?" Kakuzu asked rhetorically as he crossed his arms though mindful despite the lapse in the fighting, "just because Pein isn't _here_ doesn't mean we can act on our own accord."

"The fuck it doesn't!" Hidan crowed, his red scythe jerking to and fro with his growing rage.

Deidara watched the scene slightly bewildered yet used this chance to edge backwards, it was clear that he wouldn't be able to handle them on the ground, especially once they all started using jutsu's, well minus Hidan he would continue to come at him with his scythe.

_Snap!_

Deidara froze as the sound echoed far too loudly then it should have, though a distant part of his mind _knew_ it was just his nerves playing with him, making him feel the sound was louder than it actually was. His breath stilled as much to his dismay saw the three cease their bickering and as one turn to lock gazes onto him. His eyebrow twitched and he resisted the urge to glance down and glare at the _frigging _twig that he'd stepped on!

Kakuzu's arms fell away from their crossed position and shouted with some sudden realization and mild urgency, "we can't let him get in the air!" He said it as if he hadn't thought of the consequences before.

Kisame had already brought his hands up, even before the grass nin's shout, knowing already what a dangerous thing it would be for _them_ should Deidara make it into the air.

"Water dragon!" Kisame roared as he finished his seals.

Deidara felt his back tense and his eyes go a little wide, the one bad thing about water was that it had a nasty habit of ruining his clay; if the clay – despite that he got his clay from the water, he had his blend to it that water logging his clay would make it brittle, which means he wouldn't be able to _use_ his clay. Bending his knees he rapidly tried to decide which way the water dragon would go, it, however wouldn't matter if it simply followed him. Cursing, he waited till it was almost in his face, it was so close he could feel the cold air around the long creature and flung to the left, only to let loose a unintentional "fuck!" as in his path stood Hidan and he betted that if he'd gone right he would have gone right towards Kakuzu.

The water dragon crashed into the ground behind him, water spraying and thus coating his back but thankfully not drenching him as the ground took most of the impact. He shot forward the second Hidan did so, who allowed his face to flow with surprise but cackled, "bring it bitch!"

Deidara felt the deadly blade narrowly slice his arm as it came down and an unpleasant tingle shot up his arm and set a queasy feeling flowing through him, if Hidan managed to get his blood he would be screwed! The Jashin fanatic had blatantly made clear that he wanted and _planned_ to kill him no matter what his two companions said. With that in mind Deidara put as much force into his punch as he could, despite the training sessions with Tobi taijutsu just wasn't his t_hing _and aimed for the smug, yet maniacal face but with a jolt found his fist held tightly almost crushingly in Hidan's hand. His eye's unintentionally went wide and he yanked on his arm frantically, his foremost concern Hidan but there was still Kisame and Kakuzu who were no doubt not to terribly far behind him.

"Struggle all you want fucking pussie! I have you now!" Hidan exclaimed as he raised his three bladed scythe, his intentions obvious. Though Deidara wasn't sure if Hidan was going to behead him or take some of his blood, but he _didn't _want to find out!

"It's too bad you never converted to Lord Jashin!" Hidan yelled.

Deidara searched frantically of a way out of his predicament, distantly aware of twin shouts and gathered it was Kisame and Kakuzu _trying_ to talk reason into the violet eyed male with little success. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something and hope flared and a wide, devious grin stretched across his face.

Hidan stilled for a moment startled at the sudden smirk, and that was all the time Deidara needed. Using Hidan's momentarily lapse in action jerked his body to the side – mostly in case the scythe came down, and shot his knee up and into Hidan's private area. A low move but when one is desperate...

A loud shout of pain breached the forest and with Hidan distracted due to the unexpected pain enabled him to yank his captured hand free. It was frankly odd that Hidan thrived off pain yet could be such a baby at times over the smallest of things.

He turned intent on scaling up a tree only to collide with something solid – that was most assuredly _not_ a tree. Slowly a blue eye drifted up to lock with beady eyes, throat suddenly dry Deidara quickly stumbled backwards. Then a blue arm raised and with the barest of flicker of rue – which wasn't about the punch he was about to deliver, slammed into his face, the force of the strike sending him straight to the ground with a thud. As Deidara lay there momentarily dazed, he felt blood dribble down his chin, but as reality slowly crawled back he struggled to his feet. Huffing, Deidara eyed the mist nin in front of him and knew that Kakuzu and Hidan stood not far away, and as his mind swirled about he felt minor regret that he _hadn't_ listened to Tobi. Why did he think he could take on _three_ Akatsuki nin's? Such a foolish thought... but not impossible, if he could just take out one of them...

He _needed_ to get in the air, he was going to get either killed or captured otherwise. Slowly he inched a mouthed hand into his gray clay pouch, swallowing tightly as he saw Kisame jolt and knew that they would not remain idle for much longer. Seconds after thinking thus all three leapt, the next few moments were hazy and didn't last for very long but when the scuffle – if you could call it that, paused Deidara became aware of his cloak torn in numerous places and additional blood oozing from somewhere and he sincerely hoped the cut hadn't been dealt by the three bladed scythe Hidan carried. Panting, his hair in disarray he lifted his hand as he felt the mouth there spit out a blob of clay, and rapidly as his fingers would allow molded three sleek styled birds, their wings slim which enabled them to fly fast and sent them careening towards his three opponents.

"Ha!" Hidan laughed, clearly thinking that one lone bird wasn't going to be any challenge.

Tiredly Deidara detonated all three and watched detachedly though feeling a strong fair surge through him at seeing his art at work, even though he _knew_ that none of them would be killed from such a low magatuide explosion, especially since they had seen it coming. But it was all the time he needed to bolt to the nearest tree and climb up a few branches and jump, narrowly avoiding the several thrown kuni, which imbedded into the hard, and unrelenting tree bark. Instead of free falling to the ground and right into the three below his descent was halted by a mass of white clay, his owl bird had managed to turn up _finally_ and luckily he had the mind to create it earlier.

"Fuck!" Hidan cursed and Kisame groaned lowly, Kakuzu simply narrowed his unique green eyes at the battered blond and mildly cursing that he'd been holding back.

"You _have_ to fucking come down sometime!" Hidan snapped, a finger unsteadily waving at the bird.

"Maybe..." Deidara conceded tiredly but allowed his trademark grin to grace his wary face, "but you won't be around when I do."

All three gave various looks of surprise and unease, knowing that the artist was insinuating that Hidan would be _blown _up, if not all of them.

Scoffing Kakuzu coldly voiced, "We can still prevent you from throwing explosives."

Deidara snored, sending doubt on the three below and a sinking feeling through Kisame as slow realization spread through him, "who said I _needed_ to throw my bombs un?" He raised his hand, preparing to detonate.

"What?" Hidan uttered startled, but before he could voice 'you_ really_ plan to blow your fucking bird up,' Kisame made a weird choking noise and frantically looked down at himself, earning queer looks from the other two. Unnervingly, since he couldn't see any distinguishing cuts on him barked imploringly, "Dei!"

But Deidara ignored Kisame's plea simply watching as Kisame opened his mouth either to heed farther for him to stop or to tell the unaware nin's what was about to happen. But it was too late, as Deidara snapped sharply, "Katsu!"

For a single still moment nothing happened, and the three on the forest floor looked around and uneasily at each other before settling locked gazes onto the blond hovering about as high as the trees. Then a splash of pain flashed onto Hidan's face and his body trembled violently, Kisame stood frozen with a gaping mouth and disbelieving eyes and Kakuzu simply looked on in confusion. Then blood sprayed as an unheard explosion took place and now instead of three standing nin's there were two.

Shock mingled both nins and Kakuzu managed slowly, "w-hat just happened?"

Kisame turned from the blood splattered spot and pointedly ignored the fact that he was generously coated in Hidan's blood and glared with a grim face at the bobbing blond.

"Hidan's immortal!" Kakuzu snapped, coming as close to as Kisame had ever seen the grass nin being upset over someone biting the bullet. But then again Kakuzu and Hidan had been _together_ even if they weren't close emotionally as Kakuzu simply didn't do emotions, like Itachi but the raven had been young and his emotions easier to yield to then someone as old as the grass nin. And like Kakuzu Kisame knew that Hidan was immortal but it was also faulty, Deidara had blown the Jashin worshiper up from the _inside_, even if Hidan's head had survived there was no way he could be put back together while in so many _bloodied pieces _or lack of.

Kakuzu sent an unforgiving stare at the artist, now completely regretting holding back. While he didn't know _how_ Deidara had managed to blow Hidan up so thoroughly he was old enough and intelligent enough to know that it would be quite impossible to stitch Hidan back together. A dark rage welled up and he struggled with getting himself under control as he knew what happened to those who were foolish enough to let their emotions cloud their judgment. He had always known that something like this would happen to Hidan; the loud cussing idiot was too much of an _idiot_ to work on his flaws and even, often ignored his words of warning.

"What should we do?" Kisame asked quietly, attempting to keep the blond in the air from hearing any of their plans.

Kakuzu knew what the former mist nin meant; was it wise to stay and fight, or should they retreat and plan for another day. But would they even be able to give the artist the slip?

"Dei," Kakuzu scowled at the affectionate term, really how could Kisame keep calling the kid that? "He is pretty exhausted compared to you," Kisame pointedly stated.

"True," Kakuzu grunted. But the blond had the advantage in the air, and even tired he could still launch bombs and if he dropped a big and powerful enough one... perhaps it _would_ be smarter to retreat, they could return – possibly with Pein and Konan, as he was sure Pein would go after the artist once he learned of today's events. And Deidara wouldn't know _when_ they would be back...

Kakuzu titled his head but kept his gaze firmly on the blond, "we'll retreat, group up with Pein and go from there."

Kisame stared blankly at his companion but nodded in acceptance.

Deidara frowned from his high perch, straining to hear their quiet plotting but their low tones were too indistinct for him to make out and he gave up, instead trying to prepare for their next attack. He was certain that Kakuzu wanted to murder him for what he'd done to Hidan and Kisame – well he probably wanted to kill him for the _way_ he'd killed Hidan. A good thing he'd sent those insects before he started.

Kakuzu had the ability to detached his limbs and bring fourth four 'creatures' from his back each with a different element ability, like wind and fire, and Kisame had his water attacks... screw it! It wasn't worth giving them any more of a chance! He slammed his hands into his clay pouch, which to be frank he should have already been doing and sucked up clay planning to create a C4 and end this. Hopefully he could get done before the other two attacked.

He raised his lowered gaze, having done so while musing only to see Kakuzu and Kisame each bolt for the opposite direction. His head tilted and in a matter of moments realized that _this_ wasn't a part of an attack but their plan to escape!

His mind worked frantically to cease both their movement, his bomb wasn't ready... and then it came to him, like being hit by a ton of bricks and a malevolent grin formed, "what I suggested about Itachi was _true!_" he called loudly, while this wouldn't detain Kakuzu his mission was to eliminate all of them, and getting the numbers down to one left the odds more in his favor.

His words worked like magic, Kisame instantly stilled.

"You _lie."_ Kisame muttered lowly, assuredly. He was certain that Deidara was just trying to get a rise out of him yet... then why did he stop? Why listen?

"No," Deidara stated, "I do not lie, not now." His blue orb watched Kisame tense, his fists tightening at his sides and continued, "I was told not to say anything and your reaction branded my certainty to keep quiet." But now instead of telling Kisame in the hopes it would _help_ the mist nin he was telling him to _hurt_ him. Kisame's reaction had told him that he wouldn't handle the truth well and his rage had gotten the best of him last time. Up in the air he had little to worry about all he needed was to stall for time.

"So you're _saying_," Kisame's strained words broke his thoughts, "that Itachi was a _spy?"_

Deidara nodded despite the shark nin looking the other way, "that's right hmm."

Kisame turned his face dark with a black of rage he'd never seen on the mist nin before and a unpleasant chill traveled down his spine and he uncertainly plowed on, inwardly praying for his mouths to hurry up, "Pein felt it best if everyone remained oblivious." It was a good thing Kisame was to lost in his anger to ask how _he_ knew.

Kisame took a threatening step towards the hovering blond – though it lost some of its zeal since Kisame _couldn't_ fly. But before the blue skinned male could attack recklessly he was struck to the ground with a hard blow, leaving Deidara blinking bewildered.

"Get a hold of yourself!" Kakuzu demanded, he'd hesitated for a single moment upon hearing the blonds words and _knew_ that Kisame wouldn't be able to just ignore the taunting words and against his better judgment waited. Hopefully that hit was enough to bring the mist nin back to reality.

Deidara frowned, even though having Kakuzu unexpectedly return meant he could bomb them both, he couldn't do that if it wasn't ready.

Kisame righted himself and swiftly sent several water dragons at the blond and as Deidara handled them Kakuzu and Kisame bolted, going at maximum speed. They needed to get as far away as possible, as far out of range from any bomb Deidara dropped.

Deidara unsteadily avoided the raging water dragons with irritation plastered to his face, apparently these ones would keep at it until they either hit him or he dispelled them. How annoying...

Instead of creating a C4 when his mouths _finally_ spit out the clay he made over a dozen sleek birds and sent them at the raging dragons.

As the water cascaded down to the forest floor he waved his hand about to rid of the eye blocking smoke. As the area cleared he quickly scoped the area and as far as he could see in each direction. Nothing moved; nothing stirred but the sounds of nature. Blast! If he'd had his eye scope he could find them easily and swiftly! But he'd never made another one...

"Looks like I should of..." he uttered aloud with an irritated shake of his head. Tobi was going to be displeased. Deidara cringed a little at the thought and his shoulders sagged before idly racking a hand through his messy hair, the headband he wore in place of his rock headband had torn and was not supporting his hair like it was supposed to.

He guided his bird towards the blood splattered spot and hopped down; standing in place his eyes intently studied the ground. A glint out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and with a small smirk strode towards the object. Bending down, with his forefinger and thumb picked up Hidan's Akatsuki ring.

~ End Chapter

Well hopefully Hidan's ending was okay. I hope the fight was okay to. I had some doubts actually having Dei fight all three of them but I felt it would have been cheap for him to just blow the hideout up and I did want to do some action.

Please review before you leave! Reviews are my motivation!

Posted: June 24, 2014


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

So it's been a while, longer then it usually takes. Plainly I have had health issues. To keep that simple - it kept coming back and I was on 3 different antibiotics at different times and well lately things have been okay.

Oh yes for those that wanted a sequel to my one-shot 'It Started with a Mission' I did decide to do one. I even started it, got two pages and I wasn't thrilled with it and was deciding whether I wanted to scrap most of it or try to work it when my health declined and just got worse. and I just haven't been back to it. So at this point I do not know if a sequel will ever happen but it could.

Sorry for any grammar issues and whatnot.

To Anonymous Reviewer Guest - Thanks for leaving a review. I'm glad you love the story and thought the fight was amazing :)

To Anonymous Reviewer bruh - Thanks for taking the time to review. Sorry I have not updated.

Chapter 24 – The Paper and the Raven

The rain came down in hordes as it always did in Ame, but in passing years the rhythm of the rain and the sound had become soothing.

Konan stood on a long slick red tongue that stuck out of a head built into a tall structure, beyond drenched, her oddly orange irises gazing out at the vast village and the ocean that lay beyond. Despite being in Ame, where she loved to be most of all, she was tense, her heart pounded loudly and if it wasn't for the sound of the rain she was sure she'd be able to hear it. But her expression remained calm, aloof and she simply stood there, waiting.

She tilted her head a little as she felt a change in the air around her and a familiar demanding voice demanded, "what are you doing here?" the one she'd been waiting to hear for some time. She stared emotionlessly at the broad shoulders of the newcomer. The raven's head tilted a little, the orange spiraled mask he wore becoming visible.

"Did you need me for something?" Konan asked quietly, ignoring the question. She was well aware that Madara disliked – _despised_ being ignored. He was controlling and demanding and expected complete and utter compliance if not obedience. Granted over the years Pein had earned _some_ leeway but it was always best to not disregard anything Madara said. But she was _through_ with the way things were, she was through with always ducking her head and abiding by his terms. And if her words and actions angered him and it hindered him then she felt it was a wise move on her part. Still she had to tread carefully.

Tobi's eye narrowed and he turned away from her, blocking her figure from his sight, "it isn't often that you leave Pein's side, willingly."

Konan merely blinked, "the rain is calming. And I do have personal time." Pein and she had figured that her sudden departure from Pein's side – when it was commonly known that she was practically _glued_ to him, that Madara's interest would alight and he would come snooping. And if he didn't Pein had assured her that he could get the older nin to Ame in some false pretense of assisting her with something. Madara was very active when it concerned the Akatsuki and if Pein was convincing enough and yet bland about it Madara wouldn't overly_ mind_ taking a look. But thankfully that wasn't needed and he'd come of his own violation… seeing as Pein had set a date when she should expect the raven should he be the one sending him. But Madara was here after that stated time.

"True," Tobi replied bringing Konan back from her musing and she wasn't sure if he was referring to both of her sentences.

"But I find it peculiar," Tobi stated, his tone unreadable, giving Konan a not so pleasant inward jolt, her heart increasing and she inwardly willed her nerves to fade. There was no way Madara knew of their plan they had been meticulously careful, she inwardly cursed herself for letting his words gnaw at her. If he knew, he wouldn't be here. And he certainly wouldn't be idly chatting with her. Fears laid to rest for the time being, Konan tipped her chin out, deciding not to be baited – as that is what she felt Madara's words to be. "If there is nothing you need…" She trailed off purposely, as she steered the conversation in the direction she needed and not waiting for a reply closed her eyes and thin lines appeared on her face before she dissolved into paper, forming into small butterflies she left the tower and glided down to the open water and reformed on a small rock.

And just as she had hoped Tobi teleported, appearing across from her on a ruined slab, grateful that he had followed her so easily. She determinedly ignored the small whispered question: _why_. She shouldn't let her good fortune cause so much doubt. Madara had simply followed her because she had blatantly _dismissed_ him.

They stared at one another the only sound was that of the rushing rain coming down in hordes. The sky was dark yet it was day, the water bustling strongly and finally Konan straitened her back, her eyes hard and now that the pieces were all in position, felt no need to keep up her pretense.

"I was waiting for you." she stated, her tone frosty, clearly admitting that _something_ was up.

"Oh?" Tobi hummed, but he didn't sound surprised.

Konan felt her brow knit and that deep sense of doubt she and Pein had some time back slowly crawled back from the hole she had buried it in with constant reassurances.

"Yes," She said with a firm nod of her head, her blue hair snapping skyward with the motion. She waited a moment or two to see if Madara would press but he didn't seem inclined to so she _finally_ let the cat out of the bag, finally revealing her intentions and why she was here in Ame, "so I could stop you."

Tobi simply eyed her for a long moment; to be honest he was somewhat surprised at how blaze she was being, "you mean to betray me?" his tone hard and yet nothing else telling sounded.

Konan's eyes narrowed somewhat bitterly as she inwardly scoffed, things between the three of them had been fine when they made plans to create the Akatsuki but over the years it grew to be clear that siding with Madara would conflict with their – Pein's and hers and _Yahiko's_ ideals that in the end it had come down to planning behind Madara's back. Though she could easily admit that she wasn't surprised, she had never fully trusted or _believed_ Madara way back when and despite things in the Akatsuki taking a turn towards a family kind of thing; distantly she knew it would not last, not so long as Madara ordered and planned. She supposed part of _betraying_ Madara was due to the fact that she'd allowed the other members of the Akatsuki to get to close. She cared about them, some more than others and Madara only saw them as _pawns_ – Pein and she included. Deidara's near death had finally cemented their idle thinking to actual plans. If Madara could not care about anyone – which she felt he was simply incapable of, then how could their goals entwine?

"How can I betray? I am not betraying the Akatsuki." Konan uttered candidly.

"Humph!" Tobi chuckled un-amusedly. "There would be no Akatsuki if it weren't for me!"

Konan didn't bother to point out that it was Yahiko who had desired the creation of a group, whether Madara had shown up or not there would still be an Akatsuki but it would have been different without Madara's influence. Her only input had been that every member had to wear nail polish, and this she firmly put her foot down to was that no one could forget that a female was a part of this group and it added a uniqueness not found in other organizations.

Tobi tilted his head down a little, his red gaze boring darkly into the treacherous face, "you betray me, you betray the Akatsuki! The Akatsuki does not put up with traitors."

Konan remained expressionless while inwardly fighting the urge to just unveil her plan. Just flinging it, she risked him teleporting and thus away from where she needed him.

"I just have one question."

Konan blinked at the words but merely waited to hear what Madara wanted to ask.

"Why would such loyal members as you both betray me?"

Konan couldn't help the jolt of shock and worry that flashed through her. He knew! Otherwise he wouldn't have implied Pein! _How?_ How had he found out! **(Granted she wouldn't act without Pein so it shouldn't be shocking that Madara knew it was both of them)**

Her eyes darkened and she nearly bit her lip, suddenly the rain that soaked her and trailed down her face was not so soothing. If Madara knew… then why had he deliberately come here?

She eyed the swirled mask, gazed hard and long into the black eye whole but even as she caught sight of a red gleam, nothing telling as usual showed. Perhaps he didn't know what she planned to do, but simply knew that they had been planning. That was plausible; she just couldn't see Madara willingly – _deliberately _walking into a trap. Not when he had no reason to, he could have easily attacked them with intentions of killing them on his own terms where he would have had the advantage.

Her worry subsided, quite certain Madara didn't know her plan, she was brought back to the present as Madara continued, "you and Nagato both approved of my Project Tsuki no Me."

With a hard face Konan spat, "we do not approve of the way you do things!" While Pein and she were criminals they actually _cared_ about people and while they had no problem with killing for their goals they didn't kill needlessly, didn't –

Her thoughts were abruptly stilled as Madara's dark, velvety voice stated sharply, "I'm not the one who planned to wipe out hundreds of people in the name of pain!"

She bite the inside of her cheek to keep back the sharp retort, it was clear that the two of them stood on a precipice when that no matter what they said could not push their opinions onto the other and get them to understand and a_gree_. While she didn't deny Pein planning to kill tons of people, Madara would kill many more. That was where they were different. Pein would have no more need to kill once the world, the nations understood his concept of pain but Madara would keep killing, he would always kill, it would never end even with his plan. And his lack of care for the people he worked with… if you couldn't trust your companions to some degree than what was there? Who was to say that once Madara achieved his plan that he wouldn't turn around and off his pawns? In the end Pein and she had felt it best for their sake and the Akatsuki's sake to eliminate Madara.

Konan breathed deeply, growing tired of this pointless conversation and she raised an arm, papers fluttering around her. It was a good thing that her jutsu could work in the rain. "So long as you live, there is no light!"

Tobi was not impressed, "you bare your fangs at me, yet you still continue to wear that cloak."

Lines appeared on her fair face and over her body, "Yahiko founded the Akatsuki. The red cloud on this cloak symbolizes the blood that rained over the Hidden Rain from war!" With a firm frown she added as she gazed hatefully at the spiraled mask, "you are just riding on its coattails. These cloaks are _our_ legacy, not yours!" She spread her arms wide, paper fluttering and dropping lose from her and floated before her and then she bolted up a little and snapped her arm towards the stationary raven, shooting paper shuriken. But much to her ire but not her surprise her attack simply went right through him.

Tobi chuckled darkly, his head tilting down a little, "you are mistaken. It's all over for you anyway, so I will tell you."

Konan gazed with wide eyes at the raven, thrown off guard and yet remained silent to hear what she was supposedly mistaken on.

"I am the one who encouraged Yahiko to establish the Akatsuki."

Konan's eyes narrowed, finding his words hard to believe.

Tobi's eye narrowed a little behind his mask as he added, knowing it would have a negative effect on the female and perhaps anger her, "And I was also the one who gave Nagato the Rinnegan." and just as anticipated Konan jolted, naked surprise and shock gracing her face.

Tobi spread his arms out a little feeling that the rain had thoroughly soaked him, "well no matter. As far as I'm concerned, you're just a girl who knows nothing." He paused, the only real reason he was killing Konan was for the fact that she was betraying him. Rather unfortunate but he couldn't allow her or Pein to get away... he did not tolerate traitors.

Tilting his head back feeling that the end of speaking had arrived; Tobi sharply voiced, "don't underestimate the visual powers of the Uchiha, girl!"

With that Konan's eye dipped farther and she shot up with a twirl, a pair of paper wings forming and with a massive flap shot towards the masked nin, and tons of paper swept and engulfed the raven.

Tobi stood still not the slightest bit concerned; she was using a manifold attack... and knew that Konan planned to find a chance to attack when he materialized.

_Fine. I know she has some strategy to tempt me._ Tobi thought, his interest piqued. _I accept her challenge!_ While he had originally planned to kill her quickly since he knew that she had _something_ she felt would actually kill him but now he was eager to see what she and Pein had come up with. Besides, it would be nothing he couldn't handle.

Konan appeared in front of Madara, a frown situated on her pale face, her eyes narrowed and she heard him shout, "Over here!" Then a gloved hand clasped tightly, almost suffocatingly around her fragile throat and she choked. Then a shift rippled the air and her papers that still engulfed them began to be sucked up, disappearing into the black whole of the orange mask.

It didn't take long at all for Tobi to realize what a bad idea this was as he caught sight of non plain paper, _she mixed in paper bombs!_ Immediately after he thought those words, the paper bombs lit up, moments away from detonating and Konan voiced sharply, adamantly, "I will take you with me to the afterlife!"

Then before another word or thought could be processed a loud almost deafening explosion erupted, engulfing the two fighting nins.

Lightly burned paper that had survived the explosion fluttered in the rain and slowly descended to the vast water below, others completely lit up and disintegrated. A small patch of a cloak with a red printed cloud floated in the water before starting to sink as water logged into it and a little way from the sinking cloth, floating also in the water was a piece of splintered orange wood.

Kneeling on the water, his cloak torn giving a good view of the black shirt beneath, his mask damaged showing the white stripes around his forehead and his one sharingan eye and his arm gone Tobi grunted out in distaste, "I didn't take you seriously enough. I should have remembered that you are a former member of the Akatsuki..."

Konan hovered a ways off the water, only her shoulders and up visible, paper twirling around her while panting heavily. She glared weakly with one orange eye as one side of her face gave way to a number of papers.

"The moment I sucked you in, you intended to blow yourself up and take me with you." Tobi however found it difficult to truly believe that Konan was willing to kill herself just to kill him, it also didn't compute to what he'd learned from Zetsu: that she had everything set up, if she simply planned to get sucked in and blown up, taking him with her then what did she _need_ set up? With an inward shake of his head, Tobi dismissed his musings, "However, you failed. I sucked in the explosion itself. I was faster, although I felt a little of the impact." He paused, simply eyeing her with a narrowed gaze as she continued to pant heavily, then added when she didn't seem to incline to leave an input, "and luckily you were spared too. You should be grateful."

Konan finally stopped panting and her glare sharpened.

"Does this mean your secret strategy is over?" Tobi hummed out yet inwardly doubted. Surely she had _something_ else planned? As Tobi rose slowly, Konan spoke, "Madara let me ask you one thing."

Tobi straitened, his hair beyond matted from the rain, his torn cloak thankfully staying somewhat in place, "what is it?" his tone not really interested.

"Do you know _why_ we betrayed you?" Konan uttered out somewhat weakly, mostly taunting him as she had given as much of an answer as she deeded to give him earlier. She didn't care about going into depth as to why Pein and she were doing this.

"Well now... that's your problem." Tobi muttered at length.

Konan gazed with a fierce look in her one seeable eye and uttered as her hand twirled into appearance, "you are darkness." She held her arm lose with paper out in front of her as she shouted adamantly, "flowers can only wilt in a world without light!"

And then a deep rumbling sound reached Tobi's ears over the falling rain and with a slightly surprised eye glanced down and saw the water disappear and paper take its place. They split between his legs and his footing vanished as they grew a part at a decent length, leaving him hovering in mid air. Paper rustled loudly and then due to the lack of a firm solid object beneath him, Tobi fell down the massive passage that was lined with paper at a fast pace.

His eye widened for a fraction of a second and he quickly placed his gloved hand on his damaged orange mask, as if he didn't hold it, it would fly off. Then the space around him shifted as he planned to teleport and Konan shouted loudly, "I won't let you get away!" Numerous paper bombs glued themselves onto him in various places and with a light grunt, almost a gasp, Tobi immediately stopped trying to teleport as the paper bombs lit up and dematerialized allowing the exploding paper to go through him. Moments later they exploded and dust swallowed him up.

Konan looked on with a mildly relaxed expression feeling very confidante, "your teleportation failed. I've been paying attention to you all this time. When you suck in yourself, you always materialize yourself. And it takes longer to suck yourself in then another person or object."

As she finished her speech Tobi plummeted out of the smoke, his cloak and hair whipping rapidly due to his speed and thought in mild anger _if I didn't stop teleporting and shift to the side to evade the explosion things would've have turned nasty. _He looked up with a narrowed gaze, hate minting the surface.

Konan stared solemnly back quietly adding to herself, _furthermore, you are only able to pass through objects for five minutes!_

Tobi tore his gaze away from the blue haired female, looking around at the fluttering paper around him and at the paper walls, _what are these?_ He thought as the papers went through him and realized as he stared at the mass of paper making up the sides of this passage, _they're all paper bombs..._ He snapped his gaze back up towards Konan and glowered darkly with shock.

"I amassed 600 billion paper bombs in order to kill you... And they will continue to explode for ten minutes!" That would be longer then Madara's ability to hold his materialization and would not be able to let the explosion pass through him. She raised her hand, her heart thumbing rapidly as the end approached and she could barely believe this moment was here.

Tobi placed his gloved hand onto the splintered part of his mask and with some minor regret snapped a piece off just enough to uncover his other sharingan eye, inwardly grateful he'd taken to wrapping the bandages only across his forehead.

The walls of paper lit up, threatening to explode any moment and in the nick of time Tobi activated his sharingan on his newly visible eye and a massive, deafening explosion rocketed the ocean of Ame.

Konan hovered just above the outbreak, staying safe as water shot up from the force of the many rapid explosions all at once. She looked on with a light frown thinking back to Madara's telling information and disagreed. Both Yahiko and Nagato were acting on their _own_ free will; _they were not your pawns! They both fought following their beliefs!_

She stared unblinkingly at the dissolving explosion and thought sharply _I will not let you interfere!_ As the smoke started to clear and the water returned to a calmer state, Konan kneeled exhausted on the moving water, panting with closed eyes and thought with a little surprise, _my Sacred Paper Emissary Jutsu has come undone, I didn't expect it to take this much chakra. _Shifting, she made to stand, her paper flower atop her head unraveling, _at least..._ "Madara is..." She finished aloud, staring blurrily in front of her.

"...is dead?" The deep, voice of Madara came from behind her and her face fell into horror and utmost shock. And before she could so much as turn around a sharp, piercing pain flowed through her and her eyes tilted in disbelief to the thick black pole sticking out of her stomach, blood staining the flowing water.

"How? You should be dead." She shakily quivered out. "I ran the stimulations over and over. I was sure this sequence would work."

Tobi pondered briefly, quickly on telling Konan and in the end decided it didn't matter; she was injured and would be killed shortly for it to not matter, "The Izanagi ... in exchange for losing sight in that eye, a user can tie the illusion and reality together. It's a forbidden jutsu of the Uchiha." He paused for a moment as his left eye closed no sight to see out of and continued, "Only those who possess both the powers of the Uchiha and Senju can use this forbidden jutsu!"

Konan resisted the urge to scoff, though she doubted she would have really been able to make the sound as she reiterated questionably in a tired, weak voice, "Uchiha and Senju? Both powers?" She paused, a breath escaping her and stated with certainty, "but that's the power of the Six Paths. You do not have that power."

Tobi chuckled darkly with light amusement and explained what the Izanagi is and a little of himself and of the creation of the ten-tails.

Konan listened with rapt attention, making no move yet to free herself from the pole impaling her for as soon as she did she would start to lose even more blood and bleed out quicker. She was also using this time to think of _some_ way to get Madara, she doubted she could kill him, especially now in her state but she wasn't about to die without giving it her all!

Finally Konan could sit still no longer and with massive strain she used what little energy she could muster up and yanked herself off the pole and stumbled forward, her hands clasped to her bleeding wound, her eyes screwed shut due to the pain and sinking despair, began to take uneven steps as Madara simply continued speaking his arm holding the pole in place despite the removal of his victim, "in the afterlife, the two of you can commiserate about your foolish ideals. There is no such thing as true peace!"

Tobi watched as Konan continued to stagger and added sharply with adamant certainty, "there is no such thing as hope!"

Konan felt her eyes widen and she slowed to a stop, weakly she released one hand and held it under the rain, blood staining her hand and to her shock the clouds were parting and sunlight began to stream through and the rain _stopped._

_This can't be…_

Tobi lifted his gaze from the injured female and stared at the calm sky in disbelief, uttering slowly, "the rain in the Hidden Rain is never ending…" _What's going on?_

He lowered his attention back onto Konan, ignoring the slithering warmth from the glowing sun as she muttered, "Yahiko! Nagato!"

Whatever else she said Tobi paid it no heed, only watching her twist around, her hair lightly whipping her face for a mere moment from the move and her eyes alight with utter conviction. Her arms went skyward, paper fluttered in the air and to his slight surprise a lovely rainbow appeared in the background as if it was supporting the blue haired girls words.

Konan converged her paper together, forming a spinning circle, her face set in a hard firm expression and stated with conviction, "I shall take you with me!" A part of her was shocked that Madara had two eyes, she hadn't anticipated such.

Tobi's eyes narrowed and with a small grunt of surprise sprung forward the pole still clenched tightly in his only hand. The instant he moved Konan flung her hands forward sending her paper circle at the raven. Tobi twisted around it with hardly any effort, the attack flying past and hit the water with a loud crash!

Konan quickly formed another one with one hand and used the other to control her first; it arched back towards her, on Tobi's heels. Then she flung the one she had hovering a little above her head and the two closed in on the sprinting male at a sharp speed.

Tobi's eye went a little wide but he was hardly deterred and then the two attacks struck, water and smoke sprang up and Konan crossed her arms in front of her face to limit the dust to her face, and with a jolt, her face holding surprise looked up to see Madara in the air unharmed. Gritting her teeth she spread her hands wide and shot spinning paper shuriken at the hovering male.

Tobi pulled the pole still in his hand in front of him and met the shuriken with a loud clang before pushing it off and in rapid succession slammed the oncoming shuriken away, the force of the shuriken snapped his pole and before he could drop it, twirled his fingers around the pole till it stabilized and he could grip the metal and fended off the last few. As Tobi beat back the paper shuriken he glided towards Konan and as the last was deflected he dropped in kneeling form in front of her, his pole pressing into the water and he shot upwards his hand leaving the pole behind to sink and ignoring her plain shock, went to wrap his hand around her throat only to freeze part way there and a fraction of a second later retracted his arm and put some distance between them.

Konan gaped with shocked eyes which slowly drained to relief as she stared at the back of orange spiky hair.

"Pein..." she said weakly, "what are you doing here?" Not that she wasn't thankful for his unexpected arrival but he had never said he'd come, they had felt that if he too left it would serve to alight Madara's suspicions, granted Pein could have come after but they had both felt that her plan would succeed, that his presence's shouldn't have been needed. Konan shook her head ruefully at how wrong they and both been.

Tobi frowned in light anger at the interruption but having Pein here made things easier. Now he didn't have to seek him out. Of course he _had_ been planning on going straight to Nagato... ah no matter. Pein was Nagato's _everything_... because he had once been Yahiko, someone Nagato had looked up to, wanted to be like. Killing the shell of Yahiko would greatly upset Nagato, not that it would help his cause in any way in killing Nagato. The red haired male couldn't walk; he wouldn't be much of a challenge.

Pein glanced back a little but didn't actually look at the injured female behind him, "go."

Konan blinked her mouth opening to protest but the words never left her mouth as Pein added as if he felt her disagreement, "you are injured, leave before you get killed."

Konan closed her mouth in a light frown a solemn gaze settling on her features, _Nagato..._ Then she nodded and hurriedly left as fast as she was able without as much as a backward glance. Madara was injured and even though Pein did not have the five Pein's anymore – they had all been destroyed during the assault on the Leaf Village, he was fresh. Still she couldn't help but worry, Pein only had a select ability unlike Madara. They had doubted from the start that Pein would be able to handle Madara alone, even if he'd had the other five Pein's, that was why they had ultimately come up with her plan but it had failed... what could Pein do? How could he win?

As Konan fled with troubled thoughts, Pein and Tobi stared each other down.

Tobi shifted, rotating his head, deciding to break the silence, "what timing." his previous irritation gone. "A second later and she would have been dead." Tobi glanced in the direction Konan had gone, she wouldn't get far, not with her injury.

Pein's rippled eyes narrowed, but he managed to keep the anger off his face, keeping it expressionless as it often was. "You have – _had_ two eyes," he said at last. Out of all the years he had known the raven, not once had he given it thought that Madara still had both eyes. When they had first met he'd had worn a mask – a different one then the spiral orange one he'd taken up shortly before becoming a member, with a single eye whole. Why had Madara gone to such lengths to give the impression he only had one usable eye? How could he manage to have only half vision for _years?_

Tobi tilted his head to the left a little as if contemplating the orange haired male's words, "it screwed your great plan up, didn't it?" Konan and Pein hadn't accounted for the Izanagi since they had never heard of it before, and even if they_ had_ somehow learned of it, they believed he had only one eye and would be quite certain he wouldn't sacrifice his lone eye. So they would have followed through but having two eyes would have still botched their plan if they had known.

Pein shifted into a stance ready to attack, but asked as he had not heard Madara's explanation about the Uchiha's forbidden jutsu, "how so?"

Tobi waved his only arm in the air, in a vague dismissive gesture, "I hardly feel like explaining it again. Besides..." he trailed off not really needing to finish as it was pretty clear, and shifted into a more appropriate position. It was such a shame that he hadn't kept that pole...

Pein taking that as the end of the conversation shot forward albeit a little recklessly but someone needed to make the first move. And with that the fight between two ocular nin's began.

~88

Konan waded through some undergrowth, she was a ways from Ame and felt that she had put sufficient distance between the clashing fight. She didn't feel that staying in Ame was the wisest decision, not if Pein lost. That would be the first place Madara looked for her. And while she didn't feel comfortable leaving Nagato in his dark, secluded area, she couldn't move him in her condition and it wouldn't be wise when he was fighting, he couldn't go out of range otherwise he wouldn't be able to operate Pein. So instead she was booking it to one of the many hideouts littered around the five nations, particularly the one the other members would be at.

Despite Madara's condition she still felt that Pein would lose, and she knew she should have more faith in him but this was _Madara_, not someone to trifle with, not someone to take lightly. Their plan may have failed but since Madara _was_ injured, perhaps having the additional numbers of the other members and the capabilities then they _may_ stand a chance of killing Madara. She could debrief them on the way so that they knew what to expect. Idly she wondered the possibility of one of Deidara's bombs, whether that would be strong enough and efficient enough to do the job, but she had seen Deidara bomb Tobi countless times and he never came back with any grievous injuries... granted Deidara hadn't been trying to eliminate Tobi so perhaps if he were to truly try...

She shook her head and nearly toppled over as her foot clipped a stone embedded into the earth, she needed to hurry as keeping her hands clasped over the hole in her stomach wouldn't stop the bleeding nor stop it from bleeding from the other hole where the pole entered. But despite knowing that, her gait was slow, beads of sweat trickled down the side of her face and irritatingly flowed into her eyes and her breaths became more and more labored. She was simply amazed she'd gotten as far as she did without collapsing.

_Damn Madara..._

They had _planned_ for so long, so _meticulously _and it frustrated her to no end that her plan had failed! And now Madara knew of their betrayal – that it was all out in the open and unless they killed him quickly, _some way_ she and Pein would be joining Yahiko... they hadn't fulfilled their dream yet! Their goal! They couldn't die yet!

Huffing heavily she stilled besides a thick tree, gazing tiredly into the small open enclosure that was before her. Past the small clearing stood more trees yet she could tell that they were thinning... was she almost there? She couldn't be sure and standing beside a tree she didn't think she could take another step without collapsing. Her legs were trembling, felt like jelly, her body ached and throbbed and pain jolted around her injury, her eyes were heavy and aching to close, aching to rest. For a moment she just stood there, listening to her heavy gasps, her forehead creased in thought.

Konan jolted something alerting her, her hands tightening around her injury as her eyes shot open, and she inwardly cursed as she hadn't realized she'd closed them. Konan blinked sluggishly a few times yet the image before her remained. She wasn't surprised she hadn't heard him but what was he doing here?

"Dei..." she tried to grin but it failed miserably, "what are you doing here?" Last she'd seen of him he was at the hideout and Pein hadn't planned on sending anyone off. A slow rise of elation bubbled up, with Dei here she wouldn't have to go to the hideout... well she still would if she wanted to get healed – if that was possible. But Dei could head to Ame and help Pein.

Deidara stared with wide eyes, his mouth slightly parted in shock as he took in the slightly hunched form of Konan, her hands were tightly pressed to her stomach, blood seeping through and it didn't take much for him to know she was obviously injured. Of course her labored breathing and the way she held herself were clear indicators.

He angled his head a little, peering around her but he didn't see nor feel Tobi, had he perhaps changed his mind? No... that couldn't be so, Konan was injured and he doubted anyone other than Tobi had been responsible. His forehead knitted and his mind whirled, should he finish Konan off? Tobi was adamant with killing Pein and Konan... and she was clearly trying to escape... Tobi was bound to be ticked if he didn't kill her when he had the chance.

But...

It was _Konan;_ he was only supposed to kill Kisame, Kakuzu and Hidan. Surely there was no harm in letting her go? She was injured and clearly having difficulties, she wouldn't get tremendously far and whatever was delaying Tobi was bound to be wrapped up soon enough and he would be on her trail. But if he killed her now, she wouldn't keep bleeding; and it didn't look like she'd get very far, certainly not to any one of the hideouts. She'd bleed out before then... and if he killed her... it would be quick.

"Dei?" Konan uttered a little unnerved.

Deidara's expression melted to unreadable and he discreetly snaked his hand into a pouch, "hmm?" he acknowledged.

Konan worked her mouth for a few seconds, an unsettling feeling forming in the pit of her stomach, but decided to ignore it, she was injured, and not feeling well and she didn't have time to waste. "Pein and Tobi are fighting."

She expected surprise, shock and disbelief and then rapid questions, most prominently a bit unconcerned as the true depth of the situation went over him as he didn't know of Tobi's true identity as he asked 'why', but he only lightly frowned making a small 'ah' kind of noise as if he had expected that and know knew for sure.

She struggled with her expression, trying to keep her worry off her face, assuring herself that Dei probably just didn't care and of course wasn't aware that they were trying to _kill_ each other. And then she decided to add, knowing it would be the easiest way to break the news and alert the blond that things _were_ serious, "Pein needs help."

Deidara's eyebrow rose but that was all he showed to Konan's news and Konan felt her eyes narrow albeit sluggishly, "do you not believe me?" She could understand Deidara having a hard time believing that _Pein_ needed help against _Tobi_ but his lack of reaction wasn't normal. Dei was very expressive and she knew he cared to some extent about Tobi, so to here that Pein and Tobi were fighting and that it was serious, he should have been showing more than a measly frown and quirk of his eyebrow.

"I don't see why you would lie." Deidara answered. "But why should _I_ help _Pein?"_

Konan practically gaped at that response and lightly shook her head, her blue hair twirling a little from the small movement, "well you _can't help_ Tobi!"

Deidara regarded her blankly, though a part of him felt a little smug that Konan didn't know he was aware of whom Tobi really was, "why is that un? He is after all my partner."

Konan felt her eyebrow twitch uncontrollably; surely she didn't need to be plain about it? "Because..." she paused for a second feeling her lungs protest the amount of talking she was doing, "Tobi's against the Akatsuki!"

Deidara tilted his head back regarding her coolly, "Tobi is? Are you sure? I was sure that he was the most loyal hmm."

Konan blinked taken aback but before she could say anything Deidara added, "are you sure it's not _you_ and _Pein_ that's against the Akatsuki?"

Anger swelled and Konan snapped bitingly rather affronted, "How dare you! Pein and I have always and _will_ always be for the Akatsuki!" She sputtered immediately after, her lungs not pleased with the shouting and she doubled over a little as she coughed, blood dribbling down her chin.

Deidara simply blinked after the coughing subsided, "I'm sorry." And he truly meant that, for he knew that Pein and Konan weren't against the Akatsuki, "you're against Tobi."

Konan froze, her orange colored eyes slowly rising from the ground to stare at the solemn blond; it can't be... there's no way he knows! She gazed intensely into blue orbs and after a few moments a chilling terror went down her spine and a nauseous feeling slowly crawled up.

"Y-you _know..."_ Konan faintly stated, her eyes growing wide, "w-when..., h-how did you?" Neither Pein nor she had said anything and she doubted Madara would, why would he! He was always very plain about it staying between just the three of them! Her back straightened – as much as it could due to the hole in her, Zetsu!

Deidara shook his head as if saying no to her silent conclusion, his bang lightly smacking his chin and said again but this time for a different reason, "I'm sorry, un."

Konan gaped, trying to grasp _what_ Deidara was sorry for. Was it for knowing and never saying anything? But before she could delve too far into the blonds meaning her eyes locked onto the other's right hand and the small object of clay perched in his palm. And her jaw unhinged and her eyes snapped to sad blue eyes and realization dawned on her. He meant to -!

That explained why he was unconcerned with helping Pein, he was siding with Madara! Her mind swirled rapidly, her eyes itching to dart around looking for a means to get out of this unscathed. In her condition she wouldn't be able to handle any kind of bomb! But if she could get to the hideout, warn the other members, she doubted they all knew and once they did she doubted they would side with Madara as well.

"Don't bother," Deidara interrupted her rapid thoughts.

"W-what?" Konan unintentionally asked.

Deidara shifted a little making Konan tense but he didn't fling his arm or make any seals and she brought her attention back to the artist's words, "even if you _could_ get past me and make it to the hideout, no one is there to greet you."

Konan felt herself sag a little as a small smirk appeared on the young face, surely he wasn't implying-!

"They're gone." Deidara confirmed, purposely not mentioning that only Hidan had perished.

Konan shook her head in denial; she refused to believe that Deidara had killed everyone else as he was suggesting so! "I-I don't believe you!" she stuttered out, despite her rather certain thoughts her words lacked confidence.

Deidara shrugged unconcernedly, "I hardly care if you believe me."

Konan stared aghast; Deidara had never joined _willingly..._ "Why Dei?"

An amused grin flashed across Deidara's face and she felt her stomach turn, was he _really _finding this funny?

"It's funny hmm," Deidara elaborated much to Konan's surprise, his blue gaze staring distantly up into the trees, "Kisame asked me that to."

Her eyes hardened, "why are you siding with Madara!?" How could he!? If he knew then he had to know the kind of man he is!

Deidara studied the furious face, "why indeed." He wasn't about to tell her about them being _together_, that was hardly any of her business.

"Is he brainwashing you!?"

Deidara blinked, taken aback and then immediately after his forehead creased, his mind instantly trying to determine if Tobi_ had_ brainwashed him at some point… if it was even _possible_. After a few tense moments of silence Deidara shook his head inwardly berating himself, he shouldn't be doubting Tobi! He couldn't! Not after everything that has happened between them and even before he'd known. Besides Konan knew he was going to kill her anyone in her position would say anything to trip him up and use the opportunity to escape. Now feeling mildly annoyed and angry at Konan decided to dispense with the conversation and shot his clay bird into the air and it grew, not to the size as his usual owl bird took, and with a flap of its thick wings zoomed towards the blue haired female.

Konan swallowed tightly, despite the hard lump in her throat and she took a step back, her mind screaming at her to run but she _knew_ she wouldn't get far. Even if she could muster the strength to attack and managed to destroy the oncoming bomb, Deidara had ample more clay, more bombs. She was a shinobi, a shinobi of Ame! She would face her death boldly! She would not run like a coward when she knew it was fruitless.

As the bird drew closer she gazed with fierce determination shining in her orange eyes and any fear she felt drained, she would be able to see Yahiko. And she looked immensely forward to it. She only wished that she could stay longer if only to achieve Nagato's dream, but it looked like this was as far as her path went. And deep inside of her she felt that Nagato would be joining her and Yahiko soon, for once Pein was defeated by Madara – as he would be without aid, Nagato would be killed and he was not in capable health to fight on his own.

She lowered her gaze from the oncoming bird and locked with blue. She wished she knew… it made her heart warm, feel light knowing that Deidara felt regret at killing her. It was clear that he didn't _ultimately_ want to do so but when siding with Madara there were things one did at his behest even if you disagreed. But it warmed her to know that despite everything, despite the years as a criminal, Deidara still retained his humanity. So long as he could _care_ about taking a life – no matter how few and care for a living person as he did for Tobi, she felt that _something_ had been accomplished in her life, something good.

Deidara raised his hand forming his customary seal after a brief hesitancy and a loud sound tore through the little enclosure and colors of red and fiery orange swallowed up the thin figure of Konan before smoke puffed out and slowly began to evaporate.

Deidara stood in place longer then he should have his gaze fixed to the last place Konan had been standing despite the smoke obscuring his view, her expression, her eyes he felt would forever be _burned_ in his memory. She had looked so _betrayed_ yet there had still been _caring_ in her eyes. How could she _still_ care about him when he was killing her!? When she _knew _she was going to die!?

Heaving heavily he slowly made his way forward, thin tendrils of smoke all that remained, the figure that had been standing was no more. He had used a powerful bomb and while there was blood no body remained. Stiffly he bent down and picked up the sole surviving thing: Konan's Akatsuki ring the white surface giving a dull look as if it was sad at the death of its owner.

~End Chapter

I hope it's not too bad that Konan was killed. (It should have been picked up on that this would happen some chapters ago) Originally I was thinking of Tobi doing it as he did in the anime but well I kind of wanted some Dei and Konan time and I decided Dei would do it. And for the most part I like how it came out.

Some of the commentary (mostly at the start) is taken from the English subbed.

The festival scene is coming up. Anyone remember that I said there would be one?

Please take a few moments and leave a review.

Posted 12/4/2014


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

Warning: See 1st chapter

Thanks all anonymous reviewers and any who I may have missed pm.

Avatarislife - I very much appreciate you taking the time to leave a review especially since reviewing isn't your thing and that you are liking the story so far.

Guest - Thanks for reviewing, I do appreciate it. Glad you are enjoying the story so far.

MysticSpeedForce - Thanks for your wonderful review! Glad you liked how I did the fight. Konan and Deidara's scene was one of my favorite parts to write. My coughing did thankfully go away :)

Spook - Thank you for the review, I very much appreciate it. And I'm glad you are enjoying the story so much.

Jinxabelle - Thanks very much for taking the time to leave a review. I appreciate it. I know what you mean with Sasori and Deidara. I'm glad you enjoyed the story to the point that you did :)

Sorry for the quite long delay in posting this. Merely life being life. I'm not sure why I'm getting this posted today as I had a very shockingly terrible day and really just can't believe it happened. Yet I sat down, finished the needed tweaking and here it is.

Also note that I do not have a beta and there are bound to be errors and I apologize in advance.

Chapter 25 – A New... What?

Tobi straightened, watching the body disappear below the water till it could no longer be seen, deep satisfaction rolling through him despite that he still had Nagato to deal with. And…, turning away from the water, he gazed at the spot where Konan had stumbled off towards. He still had to deal with her. He returned his gaze back onto the dark water, not in any major hurry; she couldn't have gotten far in her condition, his mind going to more pressing matters.

Was it wise to kill Nagato?

He'd been contemplating whether it was a smart idea seeing as he _needed_ Nagato to sync with the statue that housed the tailed beasts. If he killed Nagato he would have to find someone else who was compatible.

But keeping Nagato alive… in his condition he couldn't do anything. He needed someone to move him in the contraption that he stayed in, that supported him. Konan was the one who aided him (and the other bodies of Pein – but they were now all destroyed), and he would soon finish Konan off.

Surely Nagato couldn't pose any trouble now? He could kill him _after_ the sealing of the last two buiju was taken care off. No one should know where Nagato is stashed… and he could always move him to another, more secluded area and unless someone stumbled upon him Nagato was incapable of doing him any harm.

A slight jolt went through him and his eye closed as he heaved heavily, he didn't need to turn around to know who had just shown up, of all the times…

The base they were currently using was not too terribly far from Ame but Deidara was _supposed _to be waiting at the hideout for all three members that were unaware of his identity to be at the base. If he was here… he couldn't very well kill them… unless… he'd already done the deed. It was possible but Kisame wasn't due back… he could have returned early. Or Pein had deliberately told him the wrong date, though he couldn't fathom why he would. Kisame clearly didn't involve their plot.

It didn't matter, not at this moment, what did matter was that Deidara was _here_ and could clearly see the state he was in. Due to his earlier carelessness against Konan he'd lost an arm, he had been planning on taking care of that before Deidara saw him as he did the last time he lost his arm. He hadn't wanted Deidara to _see._ And now he'd have to explain as he knew Deidara wouldn't be happy without an explanation, granted the artist knew of his immortality, so technically he wouldn't have to go far into it.

Still it was one thing knowing and another to see and he knew that the artist was shocked given his stunned silence.

"It's not that bad." Tobi uttered, his tone holding soothing undertones.

Deidara jolted, the deep voice breaching his brain and bringing him out of his stunned state yet the surprise remained and the shock.

How can Tobi be injured!?

Granted he wasn't naive enough to think that Tobi was unable to take hits but he's immortal! The word seemed to echo in his head and he zeroed in on it with some relief. Yes, Tobi is immortal... because if he wasn't he'd be bleeding a lot and would be concerned with being mended yet he stood on the moving water still, clearly calm.

So then he shouldn't be stunned or shocked or anything to find Tobi in such a state – even though anyone else would have eventually perished. Tobi had been in a fight, had to fight Konan and Pein, so it was understandable, plausible that Tobi wouldn't come out unscathed. It was just... a part of him viewed Tobi as indestructible, simply because of all the bombs he'd sent the masked nin's way over the years and his uncanny ability of always coming out fine.

Deidara lightly shook his head, feeling more calm then when he had stumbled into the open water and caught sight of Tobi injured, mostly due to the others words.

But...

He glanced about, eyeing the water and his frown deepened, how would Tobi attach his arm? If it had been severed it was somewhere decomposing deep beneath the water and if it was removed another way...

Deidara's forehead knitted and a mouthed hand found its way to his forehead, Tobi did say that his immortality was different then Hidan's. So then perhaps he didn't need his severed arm back...?

"Oh..." he uttered belatedly, "good."

Tobi sighed at the words and turned around to face his blond, he opened his mouth to explain only to close it a second later, a light frown marring his hidden mouth. He didn't feel to incline to go all that into it... "You remember what I said?" he asked instead.

Deidara's eyes darted up from the missing appendage to lock with Tobi's slightly visible face, an unpleasant emotion slithered down his spine as he caught sight of the other's eye.

Tobi sighed, lightly running his hand through his short, slightly matted hair, the sun was warm and thus his clothes and hair were drying. "Do you?" He pressed; he could tell Deidara about his stash of eyes later.

Deidara struggled with his expression, trying to keep the worry off and put on a bland if not calm expression. Finding it to difficult to speak, simply nodded, figuring that Tobi was referring to their talk about him being immortal and thus he shouldn't be worried.

"I'll get a new one; it will simply take some time." Tobi finally offered some of an explanation.

Deidara blinked a few times, his mouth parting a little as the words processed and he almost gaped but quickly schooled himself, Tobi _is _immortal, he had to remember that.

"Why are you here?" Tobi got down to the next important topic, having wanted to go straight to it but knew better then to glide over his state.

Deidara's frown returned, a little annoyed at the abrupt change in topic but decided not to press the issue. Tobi was fine, even said his arm would be back – he'd get a new one, so he really had no reason to continue that line.

Eyes dropping from the imploring gaze, and feeling mildly certain that Tobi was thinking he'd bailed – been unable to go through with things, stated, "Kisame and Kakuzu got away..." feeling a bit smug now that Tobi couldn't keep thinking such.

"Got away?" Tobi parroted slowly. He didn't need to ask if the artist had used one big explosion from the start because if he had no one would have gotten away. His eye slipped shut as he willed down his rising anger, he had of course anticipated Deidara fighting them and he hadn't forbidden the blond from doing so – not that if he had would have stopped the artist from doing it. Still... while he knew that not offing them at once gave threat to one if not all of them escaping he had really expected Deidara to kill them, without needing to spend more time on them. Now that two of them had gotten away and were still _alive, _they would no doubt plan to come back. Two...

"Well," Tobi said at last, ignoring the blonds twitch, "at least you killed Hidan..." Tobi paused, and his brow knitted, "and how _exactly_ did you kill him?" Or was Hidan simply down for the moment? If that was the case, Kakuzu could repair him and they would still have _all_ three of them.

Deidara scowled; thoroughly ticked that Tobi had apparently such little confidence in his ability.

"It's not that I'm doubting your capabilities," Tobi hurried to clear up after noting the pissed scowl and not in the mood to deal with exploding clay, "but he _does_ have a form of immortality."

Deidara scoffed, yet felt the words have a calming effect as what Tobi was saying was true, and Hidan had suffered past bombs from him before and had lived, so Tobi's doubt was reasonable. "I simply blew him up from the inside, hmm."

Tobi felt surprise and mild shock jolt through him, _from the inside?_ He hadn't known that Deidara was capable of such a thing. That was... incredible. He was quite glad that Deidara was on his side, for he had no desire what so ever to see if that would do _him_ any harm. A moment later, a vague remembrance of Deidara's fight with Sasuke flared, hadn't Deidara attempted such a thing then? Ah no matter…

"That's good." His tone carrying his approval and satisfaction, while he supposed it would be better to give more of a decent complement he had more pressing things that _needed _to be done. And judging from the way the blonds' eyes lit up, his small acknowledgment was enough… for now. "Hidan's ability was the most annoying." Pausing, he tilted his gaze to the lightly rushing water, "I've taken care of Pein, but Nagato remains."

Deidara's brow furrowed feeling perplexed, having never heard the name before he ended up blurting out, "who?"

Tobi's mouth stilled as the word washed over him and he slowly closed it, he had _neglected_ to tell Deidara of the real person behind Pein. That was the second time he'd done so… silently he prayed (to who?) that he hadn't forgotten to tell Deidara anything else. By not telling the artist, he risked Deidara thinking he was deliberately keeping things from him and granted there were a few things that didn't need to be told right away, such as his stash of sharingan but Nagato being Pein should have been told.

Tobi exhaled heavily, resisting the urge to ruffle his hair, "Nagato is really Pein." Seeing the puzzled frown increase and the blonds' mouth part, he quickly added, "You are aware of the fact that Pein had five bodies, yes?"

Deidara stared for a moment, thinking Tobi was avoiding clarifying before blinking and giving a nod.

Seeing this Tobi continued with some haste, "the Pein that ran things was also like the other Pein's; they were controlled by someone else, like puppets. This person is Nagato."

Deidara's mouth dropped as the words slithered over him.

"Nagato is unwell, so he created six bodies to act as him. Now that all six of those bodies are dead, he is all that remains, but he will not be as much trouble to take care of."

"Oh," Deidara offered, he couldn't _believe_ that he had never perceived that to be the case. Sure he'd suspected that the other five were controlled by Pein but… he had thought they were a part of Pein, just separated. Hmm, perhaps the six were a part of… Nagato?

His thoughts stilled as Tobi spoke, "however right now Konan needs to be-" Tobi broke off at the odd noise from the artist and raised an inquiring brow.

Deidara, feeling a little like he was under a microscope with the heavy stare from the other, crossed his arms across his chest and shifted his head a little to the side, gazing at the mounds of water then at Tobi, "I ran into her on my way here un."

Tobi shifted a little, almost like he was going to move towards the blond yet couldn't decide if he wanted to, "and?" Tobi pressed when nothing else was forthcoming. 

Deidara's eyes fell half lidded, "I…" Deidara broke off with an irritated grunt, aggravated at finding it so difficult to admit to having killed her. "I threw a bomb at her," he said at last.

Tobi's eyebrow shot wide and he couldn't contain his surprise, Deidara had _killed_ her? "And you're sure she's dead?" He probed, he needed to be _sure,_ he couldn't risk Konan gallivanting _alive._ She would no doubt hideaway and plan, try and come up with some way to kill him and he would be none the wiser if Deidara told him she was dead. He wanted to think, to _believe _that Deidara wouldn't lie to him but he knew that Deidara cared about Konan. There was a chance… a _slim_ chance that Deidara would do something like that…

Deidara's face darkened but he refrained from snapping at the raven, he knew that Tobi was aware that he was against with killing her, and his words didn't necessarily say he'd killed her. (Even though she had been injured…)

Stiffly he nodded and unveiled the small object he'd kept clasped in one hand.

Tobi didn't need to look twice to know that the object resting in Deidara's mouthed hand was Konan's Akatsuki ring. He doubted Konan would have freely given it, still… "You _saw_ her die?"

Deidara's glaring eyes snapped to red and that was all the answer Tobi needed, but Deidara verbally answered with certainty, his tone biting, "yes."

Tobi nodded lightly in acknowledgment, "good." Now there was no need to hurry, as he knew that the two remaining members would not devise a plan so soon. Furthermore they did not know the situation. So for the time being he could put them on hold, while he didn't like the idea of doing so since he'd planned to have this all wrapped up with the death of Pein and Konan. After all it wasn't like he had massive amounts of free time.

Tobi turned his attention to his only arm, gazing at the small object in the palm of his gloved hand. Perhaps Deidara was right... he may still need the rings, and Nagato. There were still two tailed beasts left...

"Here," Tobi suddenly voiced, tossing the small item to the stationary blond not too far away. "Hold onto this."

Deidara's visible eye went a little wide, mostly in surprise as he hadn't been expecting Tobi to throw anything at him, but he wasn't a shinobi for nothing and as the small metal object zoomed at him lightly he deftly caught it in his free hand. With a light frown Deidara opened his hand wide to stare at the object and to his surprise, (even though he should have guessed) found Pein's Akatsuki ring. Deidara's gaze drifted up and raised an inquiring eyebrow. Earlier Tobi had said to destroy them, so why should he hold onto it? Or did he want to wait till they had all of them?

His musing was stilled as Tobi spoke, "I've changed my mind."

Deidara blinked but needed no farther elaboration, a smirk stretched across his face and he nearly said aloud 'I told you so,' but managed to refrain. After all he'd said he'd only say those words if they _had_ destroyed the rings and then later deemed that they needed them. So instead he nodded and dropped the ring with Konan's and safely tucked them away together.

"So," Deidara uttered, "what now?" Now that things had been explained he felt fidgety, what he really wanted to do was go over to Tobi and make _sure_ he was truly fine. To see... to _feel_ for himself and yet he didn't. A part of him couldn't fathom why, yet he felt that Tobi wouldn't appreciate it, which he frankly thought was absurd. But Tobi had said he was fine, and going over there might come off as if he didn't _believe_ the raven. And he didn't want Tobi to think he believed he'd lie to him, not after his reaction concerning the document. Still the urge to disregard that was steadily going stronger, and a part of him just didn't care that Tobi had told him he was fine, he wanted to make sure!

He shook his head swiftly, his hair twirling at the gesture, some hitting him in the chin, leaving an irritatingly small itching sensation on his skin.

Screw it!

The urge, the desire was too strong to ignore, mind made up he went to move forward only to jerk a little as he realized he couldn't as some time during his rapid musing Tobi had closed the scant space between them and now stood in front of him. His eyebrow twitched, he couldn't help feel annoyed that Tobi could sneak up on him and he didn't even notice it! But he quickly snubbed the feeling as he took in Tobi's appearance up close, his hands twitched, wanting to reach up and assess the damage, even though he could clearly see where Tobi's arm had been wiped from existence. Inwardly he grimaced.

"Do you feel it?" he unintentionally blurted out, a light embarrassed red sheen spread blatantly across his face. It was a stupid question... but Tobi _was_ immortal so maybe he didn't feel the pain or the absence of his arm. Granted Hidan had been immortal to and he had always felt the pain but Tobi had also said his was different. At least he hadn't asked if it _hurt,_ that would have been for sure a stupid question seeing as he had his arm... both his arms severed and he had keenly felt that.

Tobi closed his mouth in a thin line, he'd been about to answer the blonds' prior question, his lone working eye swept over the portion of the artist's face, noting the genuine curiosity and the hidden concern and sighed lightly. He didn't want Deidara to dwell on it... but he supposed the blond would until he had his arm back. Though it made him feel warm that Deidara genuinely cared.

"No," he answered at length, deciding to be honest. Not that he wouldn't have been had it truly been painful.

Deidara eyed the pale face, trying to assess whether Tobi was speaking the truth, his arms raising upwards a little, still desiring to touch before deciding that he was, simply because Tobi's face held no pain, his posture didn't suggest that the loss of a limb bothered him. A sense of relief enveloped him and he sagged a little.

"Are you injured?" Tobi asked suddenly making Deidara start.

Deidara wanted to feel annoyed seeing as his other question had yet to be answered, unless Tobi _had_ replied and he'd been to focused on his thoughts to hear it, but since Tobi sounded concerned he just couldn't bring himself to feel anything but warm that Tobi _cared, _not that Tobi hadn't ever _not _cared.

"Not really," Deidara answered after a brief pause, as if he couldn't decide if he was or not.

Tobi frowned lightly, "and what does that mean?" his tone displeased. He couldn't see anything due to the cloak, it wasn't torn and he gathered the blond had changed before coming here, but he could be injured, he half expected Deidara to be injured seeing as he had fought all three members.

Deidara barley held back the sigh that almost burst out at the tone, "nothing big, un." And it was true the only major injury had been a thick gash near his stomach but it wasn't deep, just barely grazing his skin. He'd bleed quite decently, which gave the impression that it was worse but it wasn't. Really, Tobi shouldn't make such a big deal out of every time he was injured, okay so maybe he was exaggerating a bit, but he couldn't help but feel like if he got a simple cut, like a paper cut Tobi would be on him, fretting.

Not that he didn't know why, his attempted suicide hadn't set well with Tobi, that and because he cared. He didn't want Tobi to be hurt either but with Tobi he didn't have to worry as much, hardly at all.

Tobi nodded a little, after carefully surveying the artist, he wasn't lying and if the blond had been severely hurt, he knew there would be telling signs. But the blond stood firm, his breathing was fine, nothing suggested otherwise.

Slowly, some of the strain left and he almost desperately wanted to pull his blond into a tight hug but refrained, mostly because he only had one arm. "Good," he settled on and lightly brushed a gloved hand over the artist's cheek, bumping the strand of blond hair in the process.

"There are still two tailed beasts left," Tobi stated, rounding to the unanswered question.

Deidara blinked, an eyebrow rising, he was already aware of that and simply gave an imploring gaze as he knew that Tobi had to have something else to say.

Tobi shifted his gaze away from the blond to the dark blue water, "The eight-tails is bound to be the more difficult of the two to capture," Tobi paused as a heavy sigh escaped, "but even if either one was captured we can't remove the tailed beasts without -"

Deidara made a small affirmation noise, unintentionally stilling the raven's words.

Tobi fell silent, pondering, Nagato _could_ still sync with the statue but the statue was meant to have ten individual's working at once because of the massive amounts of chakra required to do the sealing. Granted he could use his stash of Zetsu's to fill the spots… Hmm, Tobi blinked, that actually wasn't a bad idea.

He wasn't quite ready for either tailed beast but with the start of the war and all the other little things with it… not to mention the two remaining Akatsuki, ex-Akatsuki members to deal with it may be best to detain them until it was time.

Inwardly he grunted; now he was regretting not grabbing Naruto when he had the chance. And all for what just so that Sasuke and he would face each other, considering the situation at this point in time, it wasn't really worth having them do so. But he knew that both Jinjurriki had been hidden, a part of him had hoped that they would be out fighting during the war but hadn't cemented anything on it. Time was different, or he should say the people of this time were different.

First though he needed to know how things with Kisame's mission went.

Deidara flexed his hands several times as he impatiently waited for Tobi to continue, just when he was thoroughly fed up with the silence and waiting, Tobi turned from his distant staring of the lightly rushing water and met his gaze.

"Do you know how things went with Kisame?"

Deidara's mouth fell a little, as he had not been expecting the question, but didn't ponder it long, "Hmm, no… but he came back injured and missing shark skin."

Tobi's lone eye shot up in surprise and mild shock, something unexpected must have happened and perhaps that explained Kisame's early return. Now he was quite curious about the events. His gaze went skyward, still marveling the fact that the rain had ceased in the Hidden Rain when it was _supposed_ to be never ending, well he knew what his next move was.

Deidara tilted his head, seriously wishing he knew how to read minds when Tobi finally, officially answered his question, "we will go back to the base," at Deidara's inquiring look he added, "I want to see if Kisame left anything for Pein."

Deidara nodded lightly, that made sense.

And without farther words, Tobi wound his only arm around Deidara's shoulders and they vanished.

Tobi took in the slightly damaged hideout with a wide smirk and entered through the relatively wide hole then using the sealed entrance. Deidara followed closely behind. A weird feeling enveloping him, and he figured it was due to the fact that the damage was his doing and that he would never see any of the other members (save Zetsu) again in this place.

Tobi sped right to Pein's office and upon entering he was glad he'd decided to check for anything from Kisame as there, resting plainly on top was a message and a scroll from the former mist nin. After reviewing the contents of both items, he turned to the silent blond, who was near the door way.

"I want you to stay here for now," he held up his arm to still the protest he knew was coming, "I'll be back shortly."

Deidara's face went sour, usually when Tobi said _shortly_ it wasn't so. It could be a day or two…

Tobi suppressed the threatening amused smirk, "you should patch up the hole."

Deidara glowered, a glare settling on his face at those words, knowing it _wasn't_ a suggestion. Not that he disagreed; if he was going to remain here for a while it wouldn't do to leave a clear sign for passer bys.

When Deidara refocused on the raven, he twitched violently as he found the space where Tobi had been _empty._

_Fucking bastard!_

With a furious scoff, Deidara turned on his heel, deciding to take care of the hole now then wait. It wasn't like he had anything else to do.

~88

Deidara wafted a hand in the air to help dissolve the irritating smoke, it had been a long time since he'd burned something, and if Hidan had seen he'd never hear the end of it. His frown deepened, Hidan would _never_ give him a hard time again and it plainly felt weird.

Shaking his head to rid of his current thoughts went about of disposing of the ruined food. He knew why he'd done so bad, or partly why, it'd been almost three days and Tobi was s_till_ not back.

What the hell was he doing?

Granted he knew that a war was underway but he hated just sitting here doing absolutely nothing! What also annoyed him was Tobi's lack in telling him all the going on's, oh, sure he'd told him of Kabuto and the war, though that had been _after_ they were said and done. Why couldn't he tell him, for instance where he was going and planning to do?

He hated the not knowing and the idle waiting, a part of him was drilling at him to go outside and do _something!_ And while he had no qualms with venturing near the base he didn't think it would be a good idea to go to any of the nearby villages – not when a war was on the way and he didn't know the entire situation. He _did_ know that the main villages were involved and while not all the villages, the smaller ones would have an active role (mostly because they were made up of just civilians), didn't mean that they wouldn't rat him out. Granted he wasn't known all over but one just never knew.

Deidara slumped against the counter top, his appetite gone, and even though he could hear Tobi's words about eating he couldn't bring himself to go to more trouble.

"What did you burn?"

Deidara jolted at the sudden deep words and almost went for some clay before his mind realized it was simply Tobi. He turned his head to the side to glare at the masked nin but before his gaze rested on the elder something soft hit him in the face, with a slightly puzzled frown Deidara tentatively pulled the material from his head, where it had draped itself after being thrown. A dark brown almost red color assaulted his gaze and as he held it out in front of him he realized it was a cloak, kind of like the one he's always worn, except upon a more thorough examination he discovered a hood on the back.

"What's this un?" Deidara questioned in confusion, his eyes shifted from the clothing to the raven, who was just a little ways in and his visible eye went a little wide. A strange feeling enveloped him and at first he couldn't ascertain why. It wasn't the fact that Tobi had both _arms_ now – he was immensely ecstatic and relived, even though a part of him wanted to touch, to feel, to make sure Tobi's arm was really there and fine. Tobi was clad in a new cloak, like the one he was holding but instead of the swirled orange mask he had worn since he'd met the raven a plain white one with three small dots almost shaped like circles were in place as eye holes, save the third. The design over all reminded him of the sharingan, which plainly looked weird to see it on a mask. The mask, unlike his last one went up over his head and covered his hair. Deidara inwardly grimaced at the lack of taste. Why wasn't he wearing the orange one? Okay, he knew that it had been damaged and repairing it would have been practically impossible seeing as the fragments had vanished into the water, and it made more sense to just get a new one. But surely Tobi had a better mask then that horrible white one? Granted at least it was white and didn't shout almost blindingly saying 'here I am! Shoot me!' But Deidara didn't care about that anymore, he _missed _the orange mask. Tobi just didn't seem... right without it.

"It's our new outfit." Tobi informed, "Since my cloak was torn, I needed a new one, I figured it was time for a change. The Akatsuki cloak is now well known, it would make it difficult to move around. And with the war, it would be practically suicide."

Deidara nodded slowly still caught up in the new mask, but still had the mind to agree. After all, while it was obvious that those in the Akatsuki had mostly been identified, wearing the printed red clouds was to eye catching. It was smarter and a little safer to change to something plain; it would help them blend in.

Deidara straightened a little, pressing his lower back into the counter, having turned around when he examined the article, and peered at Tobi with an imploring look, a deep frown now blatantly visible, "You're not going to permanently _wear _that, are you?"

Tobi blinked under his new mask, his head tilting to the left, "what my mask?"

Deidara nodded vigorously, his hair swaying from the movement but he paid it no heed.

A frown stole over Tobi's face, feeling a little annoyed that Deidara apparently didn't like his new mask, though a part of it was pride. "What's wrong with it?"

"What's not _wrong_ with it," Deidara mumbled under his breath, causing Tobi to almost miss the words.

Tobi crossed his arms, and huffed a little, "you use to rant about me getting a less colorful mask."

Deidara nodded, "hmm, yeah." And _now_ he does it, when he could care less. "But that mask is... horrible looking." He bluntly stated.

Tobi's frown deepened, Deidara was being completely honest...

"Don't you have one like your last one un?" Deidara asked with hope and light curiosity.

Tobi's arms dropped and he sighed heavily, not being able to ignore Deidara's obvious dislike of his mask, and asked almost resignedly, "would that make you happy? Me, get a different mask?"

Deidara lit up a little and that was all the answer Tobi needed. "Fine, we can go into town and see what they have."

Tobi turned and Deidara jolted a little, realizing Tobi meant_ now, _and hastily slipped on his new cloak over his blue outfit and as he made his way towards the other stated cheekily, "you look weird with no hair."

Tobi stopped abruptly, his mouth opening to retort 'it was _under_ his mask', but simply sighed heavily and trailed behind his obstinate blond.

"What about this?" Tobi asked, holding up a dark colored mask, so dark that it didn't look like it had any eye holes and if left on the ground could have been mistaken for some kind of beetle.

Deidara raised an annoyed eyebrow, "don't be absurd!"

Tobi sighed heavily as he put the mask back, every single mask he'd asked the blonds' opinion on he'd say something demeaning. Not one mask was Deidara thrilled about... but then neither was he. Most of the masks were very thin, and the colors on most of them were so thick that it made them look putrid. A few he'd found that weighed well and looked durable had been plain white or white with a small colored design. According to the shop owner the masks were meant to take after ANBU masks. That ruled out those, that and they were _white_. Apparently this time around Deidara didn't want white, he wanted something of color.

"We've been to almost all of the stands!" Tobi whined in his 'Tobi' voice. This is _not_ how he wanted to spend his time with his blond, he could think of much more _fun_ things he'd rather be doing!

Deidara leveled a glare and moved past the raven, "almost is not all, hmm."

Tobi sagged, a heavy sigh leaving him before trailing slowly behind the younger male.

Tobi rooted through mask after mask at the second to last stand in this village, ignoring the shop owner who was trying to get him to buy all of them at an apparently 'good' deal. Deidara stood near the raven, his arms crossed loosely across his chest, his eyes surveying mask after mask intently. He didn't overly care if the mask was orange but he wanted something of color! Maybe a royal blue... or... His thoughts trailed off as his eyes alighted onto the last mask stand not too far away, just barely visible among the other masks rested something tinged with blue. His curiosity spiked he wondered over, leaving Tobi who was idly shifting through the few remaining masks.

As soon as Tobi felt Deidara leave, he stilled, one hand gripping a mask the other in motion he dropped the mask and watched his blond head over to the last mask stand. Not even debating it Tobi meandered towards the artist, with a war on the way he wasn't about to let the blond out of his sight, not when he could help it.

Deidara ignored the shop owner's greeting as he stopped before the almost crowded stand piled with masks. He gingerly picked up the one that had caught his eye, it was indeed blue, not quite a royal blue but pretty close, and it was still dark yet had tinges of light, pale blue. Perhaps the mask had just seen the sun to much? He eyed the durable mask critically and deemed that not so. It had a few ridges that looked like a swirl design but trailed off on the sides as if the maker had changed his mind at the last moment, but it didn't look bad, or unfinished. Up close the swirls weren't too hard to see but because of its dark color, far away would trick the eye into seeing a smooth outer surface. All in all this wasn't a bad looking mask, it was durable, not to thin, didn't feel cheaply made and the two holes for the eyes were about the same size as the hole on Tobi's orange mask, and it sunk in this mask too, he was sure would make it difficult to see Tobi's eyes. And it looked the right size too.

"This one?" Tobi's suddenly deep voice issued from slightly behind him, jolting him a little, with a light hum he acknowledged the words and turned a little towards the taller male, the mask shifting more into the light.

Tobi took the mask from the blonds' hand and thoroughly inspected it; the mask had to be something he was interested in to, after all he'd be the one wearing it and for unidentifiable amount of time. Shifting away from the stand and after making sure no one was looking, from what he could see, removed his current mask and tried the blue one on.

"Well?" Deidara asked with a tilt of his head after a few silent moments had passed, his arms coming up to cross over his chest.

Tobi replaced his current mask and turned to face the blond and the stand of masks, "it's suitable."

Deidara blinked, a light frown gracing his face and he peered imploringly at the older nin as he paid, "but you like it, right?" He didn't want Tobi to change to a mask if he didn't _like_ it.

Tobi tilted his head a little, surveying the lightly tan face for a moment, "of course! I wouldn't buy if I didn't." _Let alone wear it,_ he thought silently. Which was kind of a given.

He went to pocket his newly bought mask but thought better of it and quickly switched masks so that he was wearing his new one and the old one, he pocketed.

Deidara couldn't help but beam a little, now Tobi looked like how he'd grown so use to, except now instead of an orange swirled mask he had a blue one. The best thing about it was that his hair was visible.

Deidara was jolted from his musing when a gloved hand grabbed a hold of his and entwined their fingers together. Deidara made an odd noise and tried to pull his hand free but hardly could, much to his vexation.

"Tobi!" his voice thoroughly annoyed.

"So I was thinking _Senpai_ that we could go to the festival, I overheard one of the mask owners talking about it. It sounds fun and it's only a couple of hours away." Tobi stated, completely ignoring the blond.

Deidara stilled his pointless tugging, glancing to the side so that he couldn't _see_ the raven. It wasn't that he overly minded holding hands it was just that everyone was going to give them _looks._ Sure most mistook him for a girl and it was pretty common for a couple – a guy and a girl to hold hands but...

"Don't worry so much Dei-chan." Tobi uttered his tone almost comforting, interrupting Deidara's musing.

Deidara felt the words wash over him and couldn't help but feel stupid for letting such a small thing get to him. Really what did he care what others thought? Sighing, he uttered an inaudible 'fine.'

"So," Tobi implored, now speaking in his childish voice. After a few moments of still silence Tobi added, "doesn't it sound fun?" giving a light squeeze to the artist's hand.

"Not really," Deidara muttered, his gaze eyeing nothing in particular, but still facing away from the masked nin.

Tobi refrained from giving a dramatic demonstration, instead giving a light airy sigh, "why not? There will be _tones_ of food and games!"

Deidara scoffed, as if he _cared_ about _games!_

Tobi inwardly huffed at not being able to entice the younger male into going, his gaze drifting away from his blond to glance skyward in thought.

Deidara's eyebrow twitched at the sudden silence, he'd been expecting Tobi to go on and _on_, like he always did in the past till he agreed. Not that he _always_ agreed but it was usually easier to get the other to shut up.

Deidara shook his head before biting his lip, did Tobi_ want _to go? He glanced down at their entwined hands, he probably did, otherwise he wouldn't have brought it up. A part of him wanted to just agree since it _would_ make Tobi happy but it was a _festival_, which meant a lot of people. He wasn't very fond of crowds.

"We'd get to spend time together!"

The sudden words had Deidara turning to lock on blue as he quelled the light scoff, "we can do that anywhere, un."

Tobi waved his free arm, "but this would be something fun!" When that still didn't interest the blond Tobi fell silent again but not for long as a moment later something he hadn't mentioned spiked his attention and a devious almost smug smirk broke out on his covered face, he was sure that this would entice the artist.

"Aw, I was _really_ looking forward to the fireworks!"

The last word echoed for a moment and Deidara felt himself perk up. He loved fireworks! They were just like his art. A fraction later he inwardly grimaced, damn Tobi, he knew him so well. As he knew full well that to see the fireworks he'd _have_ to go to the blasted festival.

"Great!" Tobi exclaimed having seen the way Deidara had perked up and _knew_ that he'd gotten the younger male to go.

Deidara nearly scoffed at Tobi's assumption that he was now going but... the prospect of fireworks and he knew he wouldn't turn that down and so did Tobi, the bastard. Tobi didn't have to sound so _smug_ about it. Deidara leveled a glare but remained silent.

"So we have some time to kill..." Tobi uttered, yet sounding positively cheery, no doubt because he'd gotten Deidara to go.

Deidara blinked a tad startled as his hand was suddenly dropped and he _almost_ remarked on it but before he could decide he was nudged in the back a little and he craned his head to the side until he saw blue and raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"Why don't you go to the library Senpai, I have to get something." Tobi stated even though it sounded more like a demand.

Deidara pulled away from the other's touch, swerving around to glare angrily at the taller male, "and why should I, hmm?"

Tobi crossed his arms, his head giving a small tilt, "I just told you why, _Senpai."_

Deidara's glare darkened, "and why should I, just because you told me to!"

"Well it will make it easier to find you," Tobi quickly voiced, an arm waving almost frantically, the last thing he wanted was for the blond to get truly mad and throw a bomb, they didn't need to draw attention.

Deidara scoffed in derision, as if that was a big deal, he was sure Tobi would find him just fine either way. "I _could_ just come."

Tobi shook his head swiftly, "No! You can't Senpai!" He quickly raised his arm to still the snapped shout of 'why not', "because it's a surprise! If you come, you'll ruin it!"

Deidara simply glared heatedly into the blue mask, he frankly didn't give a damn about a surprise! He seriously started contemplating on throwing a bomb at the bastard, but he could sense that no matter what he said he wouldn't be able to convince the raven to let him come. Though it would make him feel better.

Sensing that the artist no longer planned to argue, Tobi pointed to the right, "I think the library is in that direction!"

He shifted closer to the pissed blond and again nudged the younger male in the back, trying to get the artist moving towards the library. While he could find Deidara simply no matter where he was, so long as he wore the ring, he didn't feel comfortable with the artist wondering around alone. It wasn't that he doubted the blond's ability or anything but _anything_ could happen and Deidara _wasn't _immortal.

Deidara huffed, making his annoyance clear but not being able to ignore Tobi's clear insistence, trudged off in the gestured direction, deciding that if Tobi took _too_ long he'd leave without him.

After making sure that Deidara entered the library, Tobi disappeared into the crowed.

~ End Chap

Sorry I ended it there. I could have put the next scene but I think it was better to wait. Does anyone recall the festival? It's next chapter.


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